Finding One's Self
by Asj Johnson
Summary: Kaiba gets amnesia. Can he still be the big shot CEO he once was, or will he discover a part of himself that he forgot about long ago? How will he deal with the nightmares plaguing his sleep and what happens when an old friend finds out about his mishap?
1. First Impressions

**This fanfiction is based on Yu-Gi-Oh! - the anime and the manga. (And when I say the anime and manga, I mean parts from each, so if something contracts the anime, it's probably from the manga) Most of it isn't my idea, and it doesn't belong to me. I'm just using characters already created and placing them in a new setting. **

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* * *

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**Prologue**

At Domino High, the famous Seto Kaiba sits at his desk, wearing the Domino school uniform. As usual, Kaiba wears the blue jacket buttoned all the way up and sits perfectly erect at his seat in the back row. He seems to be listening intently to the History teacher, although most of the class are paying little attention to her.

"And because of what he did, it's thought that Adolf Hitler is the most hated and cold-hearted person who ever lived.-" the teacher says.

"No, that title belongs to Kaiba," a kid at the opposite side of the room calls out. He and his buddies start laughing. But they quit when Kaiba turns and sneers at them in warning. After all of that, the teacher isn't sure what to say, so she returns to the lesson.

_'How dare they compare me to Hitler; that man was a maniac!'_ Kaiba thinks, clenching his teeth in anger.

A lot of kids think of Kaiba as a jerk - he knows that he's better than everyone and makes sure no one forgets it. But behind his cool attitude, Kaiba is a little bit nervous at school - he can't mess up, he has to do everything perfect. He's only truly at ease when he duels or when he works on one of his projects, because then he doesn't feel the pressure of having to be the best. When he runs his company or goes to school, he feels that he needs to appear serious, mature, and strong; because that way it looks like he has everything under control. It's a very good lesson he learned after his parents died, which has been reinforced after he was adopted by his step-father and later when he took over his step-father's company.

School ends and students noisily rush out of the building, eager to get home. Kaiba is one of the last students still in the school. He walks quietly but quickly down the halls with one hand holding a briefcase and his other hand in his pocket. Yugi and his friends are standing by the wall in the next hall, having some meaningless conversation. Yugi sees Kaiba come around the corner.

"Hey, Kaiba," Yugi says cheerfully, with a little smile on his face. Everyone stops talking, even though Kaiba's still several feet away.

"Yugi," Kaiba says curtly and nods in his direction, acknowledging his presence.

"Kaiba, I'm lookin' forward to our next duel. 'Cause next time... I'll win!" Joey tells him confidently.

"Heh," Kaiba says while walking past the group. "In your dreams, Joey," he says with a sly smirk.

"Oh yeah, Kaiba? Just you wait and see! I'll-" Joey says and steps past a wet floor sign. He slips on the tiles. "Yahhh! Ahhahaiyeeeee!"

"Hm?" Kaiba wonders aloud and turns around just as Joey slides into him. They both travel several feet. Kaiba crashes into the opposite wall of the hallway - hitting the back of his head against it pretty hard - and Joey also collides with him a second later, ramming his thick skull into Kaiba's forehead. Kaiba blacks out with a groan and slides down the wall to rest in a sitting position on the floor. Joey ends up lying sideways on top of the other teen.

Téa gasps. "Are you alright!" she asks as she runs toward Joey and Kaiba. The others follow, being a little more careful not to slip on the recently mopped floor.

"Yeah. I think so, Téa," Joey says while getting up. He turns his attention to Kaiba, who's sitting on the floor with his legs spread out and his head tilted slightly downward. His briefcase is lying against the wall a few feet away. "Kaiba? You okay?... Kaiba?" Joey asks. No answer.

"I'm going to call an ambulance," Téa says, worried Kaiba might be hurt.

"Good idea, Téa," Yugi agrees.

"Smooth move, Joey," Tristan says sarcastically. "You better pray he doesn't sue."

"Shut it, Tristan!" Joey yells, annoyed.

* * *

**-Part One-**

**Chapter One: First Impressions**

Kaiba opens his eyes.

"Oh! Seto, you're awake!" Mokuba says smiling. "I came as soon as I could. Joey didn't mean to do it, it was only an accident, you're not mad at him are you?..." Mokuba asks his older brother hurriedly, before Kaiba even has time to fully regain consciousness.

Kaiba blinks a few times and pulls himself up to a sitting position on the hospital bed. "Ugh..." he moans, rubbing his head. "My head's killing me... What did you say?" he asks Mokuba, turning his head in the boy's direction after realizing that he was talking to him.

"You want me to call a nurse or something? They could probably give you something for your headache," Mokuba says.

Kaiba looks around the room. "Why am I in the hospital?" he asks confusedly.

"Don't you remember?..." Mokuba asks him, knowing that when a person blacks out, they may forget the last thing that happened to them.

"No..." Kaiba says and rubs his head again. "Please tell me..."

"It was just an accident... Someone wasn't looking where he was going and ran into you after school let out... I guess you were knocked out by the fall," Mokuba tells him while looking away - not mentioning Joey.

"Oh..." Kaiba replies, not sure of what to say.

"I'll go get a nurse," Mokuba says, turning to leave the room.

"Wait..." Kaiba calls after him.

Mokuba turns around. "Yeah, Seto?" he asks with a smile.

"Who are you?" Kaiba asks bluntly. Mokuba's eyes widen and his smile disappears. He slowly steps back, toward the door. How could his own brother, the person who takes care of him and loves him so much, forget him?

* * *

"Well, all of your tests were negative. You can go home anytime you want," a doctor tells Kaiba a minute later.

"But I can't remember anything! How can you send me home!" Kaiba asks. He sits sideways on the hospital bed with his school jacket unzipped. The doctor stands by the door of the room, and Mokuba stands between the two of them.

"Your memories may return over time. You can go back to school or to work in a few days," the doctor says.

"He can't spend all day at home! He has a company to run!" Mokuba says.

"I _do_?" Kaiba asks wide-eyed. Startled, Mokuba turns toward Kaiba, realizing his brother can't run Kaiba Corp. in his condition.

Mokuba then looks downward at the floor. "Well, I guess the company will be alright for a day or two..." he says, relenting to the doctor.

"I'll make you an appointment to have an MRI done tomorrow," the doctor tells him. "And afterwards you'll see a neurologist to discuss the results."

* * *

Téa walks up to a nurse. "Excuse me... Can you tell me if Seto Kaiba will be alright?" Téa asks the woman.

"Oh, he left a few minutes ago," the nurse tells her pleasantly.

"_What_!" Joey yells furiously from his seat in the waiting room.

"Well, that's Kaiba for ya," Tristan says, unsurprised. He remains relaxed, leaning back in his seat with his head resting in his arms.

"All this time worryin' 'bout the guy and he's prob'ly at home right now without a care in the world!" Joey says, sitting stiffly in the seat beside his friend's.

* * *

Kaiba looks out the window. "Whoa... Is this _our_ house?" he asks Mokuba in wonder.

Mokuba laughs at his reaction. "Of course!" he tells his brother with a smile.

_'First a limousine, now a mansion... Who _am_ I?' _Kaiba thinks uneasily. The chauffeur opens the door for them and they get out of the car. As they walk, Kaiba wonders what will be next, and if he will remember his home. Mokuba opens the door to their house. Disappointedly, the sight Kaiba sees doesn't trigger a rush of memories. It's just the house of a stranger, and the only feeling he has as he steps inside is one of intruding, as though he's entering someone else's home without the owner's permission.

"I'll show you around the house if you want," Mokuba says.

"No... I think I should look around on my own for a little while and see if I can remember something," Kaiba tells him. "I just need some time by myself to sort everything out..."

Mokuba gives him a small, understanding smile. "Okay, Seto..." he says and then walks up the stairs to the second level of the house.

_'Mokuba seems like a nice kid. I think he cares a great deal about his older brother...'_ Kaiba thinks as he watches Mokuba walk across the upper level.

Kaiba looks in several rooms, but nothing seems familiar. He tries to force himself to remember something, anything, but nothing comes to him.

"Can I help you find something, Mr. Kaiba?" a maid asks after watching him for a few seconds.

"Oh!" Kaiba says and turns around. He didn't notice she was in the room. "No. Nothing..." he says. She goes back to dusting the furniture. Embarrassed, Kaiba walks into the next room, still trying to find something that he can remember.

Kaiba spends several hours looking around, examining every detail in each room he visits. After searching through the present room, he collapses on the couch with a sigh.

'_I give up...'_ Kaiba thinks. He sits with his elbows on his knees and his head resting in his hands. He hates not being in control of everything, including his own memory, but realizes that what he's been doing for the past several hours isn't helping. He just has to accept the fact that he can't remember anything. Kaiba looks up to see Mokuba entering the room. The little brother smiles and gives him a little wave.

"Hey, Seto," Mokuba says and then walks over to the couch. "It's starting to get late; is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Everything's fine," Kaiba tells him with a smile.

"So... Are you ready to go to bed yet?..." Mokuba asks.

"Yeah. Just lead the way," Kaiba says. Mokuba guides Kaiba to his room and he walks inside.

"Get some sleep, big brother," Mokuba says from the doorway.

"Sure," Kaiba replies with a small smile.

Mokuba smiles slightly as well. "Good dreams, Seto," he says and closes the door behind him.

Kaiba does a quick scan of the room before walking over to the bed. Again, it seems like someone else's room entirely, but he's starting to get used to that feeling. He already knows that he won't be able to remember anything in the room, so he doesn't try. He figures he'll sleep in what he has on - at least until he finds out what Kaiba usually wears to bed. He decides to take off the school jacket and pants before getting under the covers so they won't get wrinkled, though. When taking the jacket off, he feels something hidden under his shirt. He pulls it out through his shirt collar and examines it, wondering what it is. He opens the locket to reveal a photograph of Mokuba, which looks to have been taken several years ago. He realizes that it must be something special to Kaiba, and after taking it off, he sets it down carefully on top of a little table in front of the bed.

_'I feel like I've invaded Kaiba's privacy by looking at that... But how can that make sense when I _am_ Kaiba?' _he thinks as he gets under the covers of his four-poster bed.


	2. A Glimpse At Kaiba’s Life

**Chapter Two: A Glimpse at Kaiba's Life**

After sleeping soundly throughout the night, Kaiba wakes up early in the morning. It surprises him to wake up in an unfamiliar bed, but after a second he remembers why he had. He thinks he'll wear something comfortable today, and after seeing the wardrobe where Kaiba keeps his clothes, he looks through several outfits.

"Don't I have any jeans!" Kaiba asks himself. "Or maybe a tee-shirt or something?" he gives up searching and decides to wear the school uniform. He gets dressed, and then, supposing that Mokuba will still be asleep at this time, thinks of sneaking out of the bedroom to find something to do downstairs. That way he won't wake up the kid. On the way to the door, he notices the locket he placed on the table last night. He feels drawn to it from curiosity and sits down in the chair by the little table. He picks up the locket and studies it for a few minutes. Then as he gets up, he puts it around his neck and tucks it away underneath his shirt from respect for his other self. Kaiba opens the doors quietly, steps outside of his room, and slowly closes the door again.

"_Seto_! Why are you awake so early!" Mokuba asks. Kaiba's surprised at how fast he spins around when hearing someone. He didn't think anyone else was here.

"Mokuba!" Kaiba says, startled. He pauses to catch his breath. "What are you doing up?" he asks, regaining his cool.

"I _always_ get up this early for school," Mokuba tells him matter-of-factly.

"Oh. Right," Kaiba says. He didn't even think about school.

"But I'm staying home today," Mokuba says.

"Why?"

"Because I have to look after you!" Mokuba tells him, as if the answer was obvious.

"Don't you think I'm old enough to take care of myself?" Kaiba asks him while smiling.

"Yeah. I guess you're right," Mokuba says with a smile. "But I need to watch over the company... and I need to tell you a few things about Kaiba Corp.," Mokuba tells his brother. Kaiba then notices a locket dangling from Mokuba's neck; reminding him of his own, identical one.

"Uh, Mokuba..." Kaiba says and pulls out his locket, "can you tell me something about this?" he asks and opens it.

Mokuba looks at his own locket. "It was designed to look like a Duel Monster card. You were the best duelist in the whole world..." Mokuba tells him. Kaiba doesn't know what Duel Monsters is and isn't sure what his brother means by "duelist," but he doesn't say anything. Mokuba opens his locket. "The picture inside was taken at the orphanage..." Mokuba says and briefly holds his locket up next to his brother's to show him the whole photograph. "I made our picture into these pendants and gave you half. As long as you wear it, you'll come back to me. - That's the magic of our pendants. They worked before and they'll work again!" Mokuba says, smiling.

_'What happened before...?'_ Kaiba wonders. Looking back at Mokuba, Kaiba thinks that he should say something, since it looks like Mokuba is about to cry, but he doesn't know what to tell the younger brother.

Mokuba sniffs and rubs his nose on the back of his hand, afterwards pretending nothing had happened. "So, what were you planning on doing this morning?" he asks.

"I was just going to look for a way to occupy myself," Kaiba says.

"Yeah, you're always wanting to stay busy," Mokuba tells him.

"Really?" Kaiba asks. '_At least I've found out a little about Kaiba's personality,' _he thinks.

"No big deal," Mokuba says. "You usually have a lot of Kaiba Corp. work to do."

"Oh," Kaiba says. He wonders how much time Kaiba actually gets to spend with his brother. "Hey, in that picture we were playing chess together, weren't we?" he asks Mokuba.

"Yeah. Why?" Mokuba asks.

"Would you like to play?" Kaiba asks him.

"Sure!" Mokuba says happily. "You remember how?" Mokuba asks, excited.

"No. Not a clue," Kaiba says, smiling.

* * *

Mokuba gets out the chessboard and places it on a table in their living room. Kaiba watches in silence. He saw this room yesterday, so he concentrates more on Mokuba setting up the game.

"Well, that's how the board's set up," Mokuba says as he finishes. "This is a rook, this one's a knight, and here's the bishop, the queen, and the king," Mokuba says, pointing out the pieces as he names them. "These over here are the pawns," he tells Kaiba. "It's been awhile since my big brother last played chess with me. I mean... since _you_ last played..." Mokuba says uneasily. Kaiba looks away because he isn't sure what to tell him. He thought about telling Mokuba that he has felt the same way, like he's another person altogether; but would that knowledge make Mokuba have the same troubling thoughts that he has been having - thoughts of Seto Kaiba possibly being lost forever?

"Okay, first I'll move here," Mokuba says, moving a pawn to begin the game. "See? The pawns can only move forward," he tells his brother.

* * *

After they finish playing, Mokuba starts to put the chessboard away.

"That was fun," Mokuba says happily as he puts the game back where he got it.

"I don't think I've mastered all of the techniques you've shown me yet," Kaiba says, a little disappointed.

"But you've won two out of the three games we've played..." Mokuba says, amazed. He smiles. _'Hmm... Although Seto has lost his memories, he still acts a lot like himself,' _Mokuba thinks, relieved by this discovery. "Well, you can "master" the game later. Right now you're gonna check on your company," Mokuba says strictly. Kaiba smiles at his attempt to sound firm.

"Oh no...! Do I have ta...?" Kaiba jokes. Mokuba laughs at his exaggerated dismay.

* * *

In Kaiba's study, the brothers look at several graphs on the laptop. Mokuba, standing beside Kaiba's chair, explains what each one is and how the data affects Kaiba Corp. Kaiba looks around the room. It has light green walls, fluorescent lights, and a big plasma screen TV hanging on the left wall. The door is in the wall in front of him, to the far left, while the rest of that wall is covered with books.

"Seto?" Mokuba asks, looking up from the computer.

"Huh?" Kaiba turns toward Mokuba.

"We were about to check the stocks, remember?"

"Oh. Right," Kaiba says, turning back toward the computer screen.

"This pie chart shows how many people own Kaiba Corp. stocks and also what percentage they have in their possession. You own the most stock, meaning that you control the company," Mokuba tells him. _'The Big Five owned sixty percent of our company's stocks at one time... When Seto left to find his heart. But the Big Five are gone now - they turned against us.'_

"Seto Kaiba, Kaiba Corporation president and past Duel Monsters world champion, entered the emergency room yesterday afternoon."

"Huh?" Kaiba says, shifting his attention to the TV when hearing his name mentioned.

"Big brother..." Mokuba sighs, looking up from the laptop. On the TV, a blonde newswoman is sitting at a desk, looking directly at the camera as she talks.

"At Domino High School yesterday, an unidentified teen ran into Mr. Kaiba and caused the sixteen-year-old multi-billionaire to lose consciousness. He was rushed to the city hospital immediately afterward. Seto Kaiba's present condition is unknown at this time," the newscaster says. There's a picture of the hospital in the upper corner of the screen as she talks. The screen switches to footage of Kaiba walking toward Kaiba Corp.'s entrance. He's wearing his green outfit and blue jacket. There are some reporters following him, asking questions.

"Just a few months ago, the young C.E.O. announced his latest gaming project," the newscaster narrates.  
"Mr. Kaiba, it's rumored that Kaiba Corp. has started work on a new project related to Duel Monsters," one reporter in the clip inquires.

_'Duel Monsters...?'_  
"Yes. I have been designing it myself. The device will enhance game play," Kaiba tells the reporter without looking in his direction. Kaiba doesn't seem to want to say much.  
"Mr. Kaiba, will your recent defeat by a local high school student jeopardize your chances in the upcoming tournament?" a different reporter asks.  
Kaiba turns toward the reporter, narrowing his eyes. "No comment," he replies coldly and then walks through Kaiba Corp.'s doors. The clip ends and you again see the newscaster at her desk.

"No other statements have been made by Kaiba Corp. regarding this device. It has yet to be known if this short-tempered teen will postpone the project due to yesterday's incident. We will keep you posted as more information arrives. In other news..." the announcer continues.

"No one can find out that you've lost your memories," Mokuba says, staring through the computer screen. Kaiba looks in the younger brother's direction. "If the public knew, they would stop buying stocks... because they wouldn't be able to trust in Kaiba Corp. anymore. And it would give our rivals the opportunity to buy out the company..." Mokuba says, more to himself than to Kaiba.

Kaiba is amazed at how quickly Mokuba thought of the possible consequences of conveying this information.

Kaiba looks Mokuba in the eye. "Don't worry. No one will find out," Kaiba tells him firmly, all of a sudden sounding very confident. Mokuba smiles, reassured by his brother's more familiar attitude.

**

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**One of my reviewers mentioned Kaiba's age. The answer is that Kaiba is truly 16 years old. In the dubbed version of the show, his age is changed to 18, but that's not his true age. I'll be using the manga and Japanese version for ages for the rest of the fanfic, by the way.**


	3. Questions And Answers

**Chapter Three: Questions and Answers**

A few hours later, at the hospital, Kaiba sits in the waiting room with Mokuba. Kaiba needs to have an MRI done to see if there's been any damage to his head or spinal cord. There are several other people in the room with them, and Kaiba starts to realize what it's like to be him. People stare at Kaiba and there are various whispers which he can't make out.

"It's Kaiba..." one girl whispers, love in her eyes.

"Kaiba's in _this_ hospital..." a boy whispers with admiration for the top duelist.

"Why is the wealthy owner of Kaiba Corp. in the waiting room..." a woman wonders.

_'I feel so nervous sitting here... It seems like everyone's staring at me, but whenever I glance at someone, they look away,' _Kaiba thinks. He looks toward Mokuba, who's sitting beside him. Mokuba looks up at Kaiba and smiles at his older brother reassuringly. _'Could their actions be because Kaiba owns his own company?' _Kaiba wonders.

The receptionist starts to read the next name on the list. "Seto..." she looks up from the paper and at Kaiba. "Seto _Kaiba_!" she says in surprise. Kaiba takes a deep breath and stands up.

"Good luck, Big Bro," Mokuba says as Kaiba walks into the examination room. Kaiba looks over his shoulder momentarily to smile at Mokuba. The younger brother must stay there in the waiting room while Kaiba has the MRI.

A little later, the technician tells Kaiba to take off his school jacket and pants because the metal zippers can mess up the machine.

"Excuse me... What could the MRI find?" Kaiba asks the technician hesitantly, before he goes to change into the hospital gown.

"It might not find anything. In that case you'll be fine," the tech tells him.

"I asked what it _could_ find, not what the best possible outcome is..." Kaiba says, realizing that the technician won't tell him.

"Don't worry about it, kid. The neurologist will discuss the results of the scan with you tomorrow. I'm sure it's nothing serious."

Kaiba thinks of something, based on what he's found out about Seto Kaiba so far. He narrows his eyes. "I'm Seto Kaiba, president of Kaiba Corporation. - You tell me what it could find, and _now_!" he demands.

The technician's eyes widen. _'_This_ is Seto Kaiba?' _he thinks, surprised. Everyone knows about Seto Kaiba's short temper. He's a businessman and is no different than the rest of the businessmen out there. When Kaiba asks you something, you better have the answer. "Sure, mister Kaiba! Whatever you say, sir!" the tech tells him.

"Well?" Kaiba asks, sounding annoyed. He looks away as he waits for an answer, thinking about how useful it is to hold a high position in society like Kaiba does.

The tech doesn't say anything for a second - he thinks about whether or not he should truly tell Kaiba. "The worst possibilities could mean death..."

Kaiba jerks his eyes back to the technician in surprise.

* * *

_'I shouldn't have pressured the technician to answer me like I did... I said that I was Seto Kaiba, but I'm not. It was only a façade... I'm not really Kaiba, and I was only acting...'_ Kaiba thinks during the drive back to the mansion. As Kaiba goes through those gates for the second time in his life, he wonders if he'll ever get used to his home. The brothers go past the small bushes outlining the drive and the rows of evergreen trees in the front yard, to the front door of the three-story mansion.

After going inside, Kaiba lies down on a couch in one of the rooms, glad he's not in public anymore. Today's trip kind of wore him out. But as soon as he gets in a comfortable position, unanswered questions begin to circle through his mind.

_'Every person I saw acted as if I were some sort of celebrity. At first I thought it could be because Kaiba owns a company, and they also could have seen the news; but it just seems like there's more to it than that... Maybe it has something to do with this "Duel Monsters" that I've been hearing about... Besides that, there are the results of the MRI to think about... And I wonder if I will ever remember my life... There are so many details about Kaiba that I have no clue of...' _Kaiba thinks. He sighs. '_Pretty much everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours has only raised questions for me...' _Kaiba thinks as he lies there, staring at the ceiling.

Mokuba enters the room hesitantly and walks toward the couch.

Kaiba hears something and sits up to see Mokuba standing a few feet away from him.

"Hey, Seto..." Mokuba says without looking at him.

Kaiba can tell there's something on his brother's mind because Mokuba's not being his usual perky self. "What is it?" Kaiba asks.

"Well... I was just wondering if you've remembered anything yet..." Mokuba says; looking up for an answer, although he didn't state this as a question.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba... I haven't," Kaiba tells him. He knows Mokuba misses his brother, and he feels like it's his fault that Kaiba is gone. He's supposed to _be_ Kaiba, but he can't get himself to recall his past and can't figure out what he's doing wrong. "Maybe if I knew more about myself then it would come back to me..." he thinks aloud. Then he gets an idea. "Mokuba, what was that "dueling" thing you mentioned this morning?" he asks, thinking this question may hold the most answers.

"I could _show_ you..." Mokuba says with a big smile and then runs out of the room. Kaiba quickly jumps off the couch to try and follow him. Mokuba stops in front of one of the doors and gestures for Kaiba to open it after he catches up.

"Whoa!... What _is_ all of this?" Kaiba asks, surprised, after opening the door.

Mokuba smiles. "This is where you keep your Duel Monster trophies," he tells his older brother. As Kaiba steps into the room, he stares at the first place trophies in wonder. They're so impressive. How could _he_ compare to the owner of these trophies?

"You've entered and won tons of Championships, and these are the prizes," Mokuba tells him. Kaiba pans the room, looking at the shelves lined with trophies. The walls are painted maroon, but you can see little of that color in between the gold cups. His eyes stop on one wall, which is covered with cards. A glass covering, which shines from the reflection of the fluorescent lights, protects the rows of cards inside.

"Those are your valuable ones. - You used to collect super-rare Duel Monster cards," Mokuba says, following his gaze.

"Did I stop?" Kaiba asks, still staring at the cards. _'So it's a card game...'_ he thinks.

"Basically. There aren't many more cards left that are worth owning," Mokuba tells him. "You keep some extras in a briefcase in case you need them for anything."

"And I bought _all_ of those?" Kaiba asks in amazement. He can tell by how they're taken care of that the cards must be expensive.

"Yep! Most of them..." Mokuba answers, saying the last part quietly.

"Huh?" Kaiba asks, turning toward Mokuba questioningly.

"Well... You would usually buy the cards from someone - offering any amount of money for the extremely valuable ones. You would also ask about trading with cards from your briefcase." Mokuba looks away from his brother's eyes at this point. "But sometimes the cards' owners didn't want to give up their cards and would refuse every offer you made... You always ended up getting the card you wanted, though; _by any means necessary_..."

* * *

Kaiba still thinks about what Mokuba said while getting ready for bed. He found a pair of light blue pajamas while he was looking through the room this morning, so he will wear them tonight.

_'Any means necessary... What could he have meant by that?...' _Kaiba wonders while taking off his school jacket. That phrase sounded so dark, even thinking about it sends shivers up his spine. He looks up to see a full-length mirror on the other side of the room. He can't remember the last time he's taken a really good look at himself - literally - and figures that it would be a good idea to get more familiar with his appearance. That, and it's a way to get his mind off those words. He walks over to the mirror as he unbuttons his shirt and pulls it off. When he reaches the other wall and looks in the mirror, he is immediately drawn to his eyes. They just seem to stand out from his other features. He looks so serious and determined, like he has everything under control. But his eyes appear out of place somehow. Then he realizes that the eyes in the mirror don't belong to Kaiba. No - from what he saw of Kaiba on TV earlier today, Kaiba's eyes are cold and have a ruthless glow; like the rest of him. Instead, his reflection has kind, blue eyes. He knows it must be his imagination, though. His eyes look the same as always. It's his head that's wrong; he feels like a stranger to himself. He doesn't recognize his own body. A person should know everything about themselves - every curve of their body, the history of every detail - but he doesn't remember anything at all about who he is. He has discovered several things about Kaiba today, but he merely sees the scratches on his surface. He has no idea how deep the scars of his life truly are.

* * *

Kaiba wanders through the fog, not able to see anything through it. Then someone comes into his line of vision; a man dressed in black, wearing a sleeveless, long, white jacket.

"Hello?" he asks, his voice echoing. "Who are you?"

"Heh. I should be asking _you_ that question. This _is_ my domain," the man tells him.

"I..." Kaiba says, turning away from the person's eyes, ashamed. "I don't know who I am..."

"Look in your heart - _that's_ who you are. Don't become someone you're not! Be strong and don't give in!" The man tells him. He then looks at Kaiba with cold piercing eyes. "Only _weaklings_ allow others to sway their thoughts! Don't be a weakling!" The man yells.

Kaiba wakes suddenly from his troubled sleep, almost jumping out of the covers. He turns to his right in order to read the time from the digital clock on his nightstand. It's 2:27am.

"I... I had a dream about Kaiba..." he says to himself.

**

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**There's a fanart picture I made for this chapter in my profile. I would have linked to it here, but links don't work; so check out my profile sometime.**


	4. Faint Recollections

**Chapter Four: Faint Recollections**

Sunlight pours in from one of the large windows onto a sleeping figure. Kaiba musses the covers of his bed, lightly murmuring as he tries to cling to what remains of his dream. The sun wins the battle, forcing him to consciousness. He sits up, only faintly remembering the image of a woman's face. Something about this brunette was very warm and comforting. He shakes it off as he changes clothing; today wearing the matching green shirt and pants he's seen on the news yesterday. When putting on his shirt, he feels something in the breast pocket.

_'A deck of cards?'_ he wonders while looking at the stack he took out. _'It must be Duel Monster cards...'_ he thinks. He puts them back in the pocket and opens the door.

"Mokuba...?" Kaiba whispers while walking into the hall; wondering if Mokuba will be waiting there for him like the day before. He hears a door shut nearby.

"Hey, Seto!" Mokuba calls happily, running to the older brother.

"Hey," Kaiba replies. He smiles at this. _'It's like the kid has a sixth sense...'_ he thinks, noticing how Mokuba seems to know exactly when he wakes up.

"So; what do you want to do today? I could show you how to play Duel Monsters," Mokuba says cheerfully; knowing that it's his older brother's favorite game.

"You can _after_ school," Kaiba tells him.

"But Seto, I-" Mokuba starts.

"Mokuba, you have to go to school. Besides, you said that no one can know what happened to me. If you're staying home from school everyday, then wouldn't people be curious?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah... I guess..." Mokuba admits. "But you have an appointment with the neurologist today! I have to be there!"

"Mokuba, I think the chauffeur knows where to go," Kaiba states. Mokuba looks up at him with concern. "Don't worry! I'll be fine!" Kaiba tells him with a big smile.

* * *

"Mokuba Kaiba. Why weren't you here yesterday?" the teacher asks sternly.

"I'm sorry," Mokuba says and bows his head to her. "My brother had an accident after school the day before yesterday."

"Oh..." the teacher says, starting to reconsider her harsh treatment.

"But... He's okay now. - It wasn't anything serious or anything," Mokuba tells her, saying the last sentence too quickly.

"Well, take your seat, Mokuba," the teacher tells him. She watches as Mokuba walks down a row and sits down at his desk.

"Today we will be studying..." the teacher says, beginning the lesson.

_'I wonder if my older brother really _is_ okay...'_ Mokuba thinks. He looks out the window at the grayish-white sky. _'I wish I didn't tell him about those cards last night... But he asked me about them. I _had_ to tell him. It's just that... that's not really who he is. He used to be mean and have to get everything he wanted, but he changed... I _know_ he did!'_ Mokuba thinks, clenching his hands into fists. _'He _can't_ go back to the way he was before! It wouldn't be fair! I just got my brother back a little while ago and he can't be gone again!'_ He calms down and relaxes his grip. _'No... Seto will come back. My pendant assures that. I just hope he's back _soon_...'_

* * *

Kaiba sits with his head propped up on his hands. He's been deep in thought for what seems like hours; trying to piece things together. He sighs. _'I wish Mokuba had stayed home... I don't have anything to do,'_ Kaiba thinks. He smirks. _'How ironic that I was the one who told him to go.'_

"Sir, it's almost time for your appointment," a man tells Kaiba, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Thanks," Kaiba says with a smile.

The man looks at Kaiba strangely. _'Mr. Kaiba has been acting peculiar lately...'_ he thinks.

"I'll be ready in a minute," Kaiba tells him while getting up. Kaiba goes upstairs to his bedroom and puts on his long blue jacket.

_'If I'm going to pretend to be Kaiba, I might as well dress the part,'_ he thinks. After walking back downstairs, three of the servants wait at the front door. Two open the door for him and, although it's only slightly sprinkling, the other one opens an umbrella as he steps outside.

Kaiba glares at her. "I can do that myself," he tells her, annoyed.

She gasps. "Oh! Of course, Mr. Kaiba," she says and lets him have the umbrella that she's been holding over his head. _'He's been doing a _lot_ of things by himself lately... But I guess it could have something to do with him having been defeated by that kid several months ago...'_

As the limo makes its way down the road, Kaiba looks out the window, noticing the new shine added to the world. It's like the surface of the earth was polished by the rain. He listens to the swish of passing cars throughout the ride, which seems calming; taking his mind off of what the MRI could have found.

* * *

"Well, the results came back as normal," the neurologist says.

"I don't know why, because that's what I'm anything but," Kaiba tells him.

"Mr. Kaiba, an MRI can't tell me whether or not you have amnesia. I have to take your word for it. You should be glad your brain hasn't received any serious damage."

"I am," Kaiba tells him seriously. He looks away. "...Could you just tell me how long it will take for my memories to return?"

"No. Amnesia can last from a few minutes to several months, or even years."

"What?" Kaiba asks, startled.

"Your memories can come back at any time. I can't tell you when and where. I would suggest you regain your daily routine. Doing things you're accustomed to can trigger memories."

* * *

The rain had picked up while Kaiba was with the neurologist. It beats down on the roof of the limo and makes it impossible for him to distinguish anything through the window. He suddenly remembers the deck of cards he found this morning - something to rescue him from utter boredom. He reaches into his breast pocket and pulls them out, fanning out the cards in his hand to look at the whole deck at once.

Kaiba's eyes widen at the first card he notices. _'The Blue-Eyes?'_ he wonders when seeing the image. He then looks at the other cards in the deck. _'I wonder why Kaiba has three of this card...'_

Kaiba feels the limo come to a stop and he puts the cards back in his pocket as the chauffeur opens the door for him. Kaiba takes the umbrella offered to him by the driver and walks inside the house.

"You're home," Mokuba states with a smile.

"Yeah," Kaiba replies kindly.

"So what did he say?" Mokuba asks.

"Who?"

"The neurologist," Mokuba says, annoyed. Concern overtakes him. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah. He... said I could get my memories back any time now..." Kaiba tells his brother.

"That's great!" Mokuba says happily.

"Yeah..." Kaiba says, distracted.

"So you want me to tell you more about Duel Monsters now? That could help you remember faster," Mokuba points out.

"Sure," Kaiba says and shrugs. "Actually, I was going to ask you about something. - I found this deck earlier today..." Kaiba says, removing the deck from his pocket.

"It's _your_ deck. You never go far without it, so I'd say it was easy to find."

"Well, I was wondering what you could tell me about these three cards," Kaiba says, removing the three legendary dragons from the rest of the cards and lifting them up for the boy to see.

"Those are your favorite cards, the Blue-Eyes White Dragons," Mokuba tells him.

"What makes those so special?" Kaiba asks.

"There's only three of them in the whole world. They are some of the most powerful and rare cards in all of Duel Monsters."

Kaiba almost drops them, realizing how sacred they are. "There's only _three_? These are the only ones?" He asks, shocked.

"Yeah. Actually... you went through a lot to get them, too. One of them came from America, another from Hong Kong, and also one from Germany," Mokuba says.

_'Wait! Could _those_ three be some of the cards Mokuba was talking about last night?'_ Kaiba wonders.

_"Sometimes the cards' owners didn't want to give up their cards and would refuse every offer you made... You always ended up getting the card you wanted, though; _by any means necessary_..."_

Kaiba decides not to bring up what was said the night before, instead he decides to mention something else he just remembered. "When I first saw one of those cards, I thought I saw a face..." Kaiba says, wondering aloud.

"A face?" Mokuba asks, puzzled.

"Yeah... She looked like one of those dragons. So pale, and with blue eyes..." Kaiba says. _'I wonder if she could have been a past girlfriend of Kaiba's...'_ he thinks. "Do I know anyone like that?" he asks the younger brother.

"Not that I know of..." Mokuba answers him, his brow still knitted in confusion.

"Well, I was probably just imagining it. It might have been the lighting or something," Kaiba says, dismissing the face he saw as only an optical illusion; much like how he put the other woman, who he saw in the dream, out of his mind.

**

* * *

**

**Kaiba's been wearing the school uniform because... that's just what he had on when he was in school... I donno... But he has his Duelist Kingdom outfit on in this chapter. And I know he'll have another outfit later on.**

**Oh yes, one other thing. Just to make sure it's clear... There's two women in this chapter. One at the beginning and one at the end. Completely different. (Since most of you seem to know one women but not the other, I'll try to explain the first one later on. There won't really be much about either, unless I change my mind. Just thought I should mention them in the story somewhere. They're part of Kaiba's past... They should be mentioned, right?)**


	5. Back On Schedule

**Chapter Five: Back on Schedule**

Kaiba concentrates on putting on his school jacket while opening the door. "Hey Mokuba, could you tell me-" Kaiba calls as he closes the door behind him. He turns around to see that his brother isn't in the hall. "Mokuba?" he calls again. He then walks over to the room which he has learned to be Mokuba's. When he opens his brother's door, he sees Mokuba asleep with an angelic expression on his face. Kaiba smiles at the sight, but gently shakes him awake, anyhow.

"Hmm...? Hey, Seto..." Mokuba mumbles sleepily.

"Hey, Kid. I thought you always got up before I did. You had me talking to myself back there," Kaiba says.

"Huh...?" Mokuba asks confusedly, pulling himself up against the bed's headboard.

"Never mind that. I wanted to ask you a few things," Kaiba tells him and sits down on the bed beside the younger brother.

"You usually get up before I do. I guess I was just lucky the last two days... Why are you awake now, anyway? You can sleep in as long as you want!"

"Actually, today I'm starting school," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Really? But you still don't have your memories back yet!" Mokuba says, surprised.

"I guess I forgot to tell you. The neurologist said I should start back to school and to work, now."

"Oh wait, what was it you woke me up to ask?" Mokuba asks his brother.

"I wanted to know if you could tell me something about the high school."

"Like what?" Mokuba asks.

"Like... Everything," Kaiba states with an embarrassed smile. Mokuba stares at him wide-eyed.

* * *

Kaiba gets out of the limo and walks into the school, carrying a few books in one hand by his side. Of course the driver knew where the school was, so Kaiba has one problem solved.

As Kaiba walks down the halls, he sees kids looking at him and whispering quietly. He ignores them and continues walking. Actually, he finds their behavior toward him to be pretty odd. Why hasn't anyone said a word to him? Why do they seem to be looking at him as if he were the worst person on earth? But he doesn't show how he feels - instead deciding to glare through them with an icy look which parallels their own.

"Hi, Kaiba!" he hears someone say. He turns toward the direction of the voice. There's a short kid smiling at him. There's also some other kids behind the boy who aren't really smiling, but aren't giving him mean or disgusted looks, either.

_'Well, anything to get away from those other kids,' _he thinks and walks toward them - relieved he has at least a few friends in the school. "Hi," he says back.

"Did Kaiba just say "hi" to us?" Téa asks Joey.

"I don' know. Will ya pinch me ta see if I'm dreamin'...?" Joey replies in disbelief.

"I think hell just froze over..." Tristan comments.

"Um... Here," Yugi says, revealing a briefcase he had behind his back. "We were going to give it to you at the hospital, but you already left..."

"Oh. Uh... What is it?" Kaiba asks; looking at the briefcase that Yugi is barely able to hold up. The group looks at Kaiba as if he's nuts.

"...It's your briefcase, Kaiba," Yugi says strangely, his eyes wide with worry. "It was left behind when you were taken to the hospital..."

Kaiba looks at the group; from Tristan, to Téa, to Joey, and then down to Yugi. The expressions on everyone's faces seem to be demanding an explanation from him. He gives up. They know.

"I've _tried_ being Kaiba, okay! I should have known this charade would come to an end pretty soon... I let Mokuba down, I let Kaiba down, I let the company down," Kaiba lists, clearly upset.

"Eah... Kaiba? Did ya notice you're talkin' in the third person?" Joey says with a finger in his ear. Téa elbows Joey hard in the ribs.

"You mean you're not Kaiba?" Yugi asks. Yugi would believe it. He's had stranger things happen to him before; from being pulled into his television set, to having an ancient spirit merge with him and take over his body. Besides, someone has impersonated Kaiba once before - what's to keep it from happening again? "Then who are you?" Yugi asks him.

"I don't know... I don't remember anything... I know I'm _supposed_ to be him, but I just can't picture myself being that guy based on what I know about him so far," Kaiba tells them while looking at a floor tile.

"So you have amnesia?" Téa asks.

"Yeah... I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Will you keep it a secret?" Kaiba pleads, looking up for an answer.

"On one condition!" Joey says with a big grin, holding up an index finger for emphasis. Téa gets a sweat drop on her forehead. "Joey!" she says and elbows the blond again.

"Hey! Will ya quit doin' that!" Joey yells.

"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with us," Yugi says and smiles at Kaiba. Kaiba gives him a relieved smile in return, which makes everyone look at him strangely again. Kaiba looks at them curiously, wondering what he did.

"We're in the same room," Téa says politely, gesturing to a nearby door. _'Maybe Kaiba was a jerk before... But if he truly has amnesia, I can't blame him for what he can't even remember,'_ Téa thinks.

When the bell rings, Kaiba is stuck at the front of the room wondering where he sits. Yugi points toward an empty desk close to his own in the back of the room and Kaiba sits there. Kaiba notices more glares directed toward him after sitting down.

_'Why do the other kids keep throwing looks at me?... This doesn't make sense at all... When I was in the hospital, everyone seemed to admire me. Why would school be any different?'_ Kaiba wonders. He begins staring at his desk so he won't see the looks.

* * *

After writing a long and complicated math problem on the blackboard, the teacher turns to the class.

"Mr..." the teacher says, glancing around the room, "Kaiba. Solve the problem on the board," he demands. Kaiba looks at the equation that the teacher just wrote.

_'Oh no... I have no idea what the answer is to that problem! Mokuba said that Kaiba gets straight A's! He would know the answer!'_ Kaiba thinks. "You know that _I_ know the solution. Shouldn't you see if anyone else knows the answer, first? Someone like..." Kaiba says smoothly; he tries to think of someone's name, "Joey?"

"Heh?" Joey asks, waking up after hearing his name mentioned. The teacher realizes that Kaiba's right. - It _would_ make more sense to ask Joey Wheeler; Joey _never_ seems to pay attention in class.

"Mr. Wheeler, what's the answer to the equation?" the teacher asks. "And... Mr. Kaiba, I'd like to talk to you after class," he says somewhat sinisterly.

* * *

"Kaiba, you did that on purpose!" Joey yells.

"I'm sorry; your name was just the only one I caught..." Kaiba says. "I had to say _something_... I didn't know the answer."

"Joey, just forget it, man," Tristan tells his friend, throwing a mean glance toward Kaiba. Kaiba looks away from Tristan ashamedly.

"Well... I'd better go back into the room. The teacher wanted to see me," Kaiba tells the group while looking at the floor. As the gang leaves, Kaiba feels as though he has already betrayed their trust. Feeling guilty about what he did to Joey, Kaiba walks back into the classroom. _'But Mokuba said not to tell _anyone_ - not even the mansion's staff know - so the teacher can't find out.'_

"Mr. Kaiba... I know you're used to being in charge, being a C.E.O., but while you're in my class, you follow my rules," the teacher begins.

"Yes, Sir..." Kaiba says, looking at the floor ashamedly.

"When I ask you to answer a question, I expect an answer. I let you have your way this time, but the next time you're being disrespectful to me, I'll have to take action."

"It will never happen again," Kaiba tells him, looking directly into the man's eyes.

"G-good," the teacher says, startled by the cold, confident look.

_'I'll be sure to read through the textbooks later... I won't let that happen again,'_ Kaiba thinks.

* * *

"Seto, you're late!" Mokuba exclaims as Kaiba closes the front door of the mansion.

"Sorry, kid... I kind of ran into a problem at school. One of the teachers wanted to talk to me..." Kaiba tells him.

"What for?" Mokuba asks, worried.

"It's not that big of a deal... Here. Some guys said this was mine," Kaiba says and puts the briefcase in a chair.

"Yeah..." Mokuba says, contemplating over the appearance of the silver briefcase. "Well, you better get to Kaiba Corp! I was looking through my brother's schedule and found he had an important meeting today!" Neither brother catches the mistake in Mokuba's sentence.

"Oh... What am I supposed to do...?" Kaiba asks worriedly.

"Um... Hurry and change clothes. You usually don't wear your school uniform unless it's unimportant, or during school hours and can't change in time," Mokuba says. Kaiba nods with an "okay" and heads to his room. Not sure of what Kaiba would wear to a meeting, he keeps looking through the wardrobe until he sees a white suit. He steps out of the room while arranging the blue tie. Mokuba's waiting in the hall.

"Is this okay?" Kaiba asks his brother.

"Um, yeah. You haven't worn that outfit for about a year, but it's fine," Mokuba says with a smile.

They both get in the back seat and their limo takes off toward Kaiba Corp.


	6. Business Deals

**Chapter Six: Business Deals**

Mokuba makes sure the partition between them and their chauffeur is up before interrupting the silence of their trip.

"Hey, Seto?" Mokuba asks. Kaiba looks toward him. "I didn't think you would know how to fix your tie. I mean, it took me a year to get it right..." he says, revealing what he's been preoccupied with for the last several minutes.

"I don't know; I didn't really think about it... I just _knew_ how to fix it," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Oh..." Mokuba says, deep in thought. "I guess it's like how you still remember how to talk..."

"Yeah, I guess," Kaiba replies, himself occupied with thoughts of how today's meeting will go.

Mokuba does find it a little interesting that Kaiba can remember some things even without his memories, but he also had his hopes up for a second. He thought his brother might have remembered something. Even a tiny thing like remembering having worn a tie before would make the younger brother happy.

_'Maybe Seto will remember something inside Kaiba Corp...'_ Mokuba thinks as they near the building.

Kaiba stares at the structure from the window.

"Do you remember the building?" Mokuba asks eagerly.

"No, it's just so big..." Kaiba says while looking out the window.

"Oh. Yeah, it's one of the biggest buildings in Domino," Mokuba says, happy his brother's impressed by the skyscraper. _'I wish Seto remembered the building... But I don't want him to know I'm worried about him... I can be strong and wait,'_ Mokuba thinks while gripping his locket.

When the limo comes to a stop, the brothers step out and walk toward the building. Kaiba has déjà vu as he remembers seeing a clip on the news which showed Kaiba walk down this same path and into Kaiba Corp. headquarters.

Several people are inside at the moment and their conversations merge into background noise - of which Mokuba seems completely oblivious.

_'It feels odd leading Seto... I've always been the one to follow _him_...'_ Mokuba thinks, heading for the elevator with his brother following close behind. They step into Kaiba Corp.'s glass elevator and Mokuba presses the button for one of the upper floors.

"Mokuba, are you going to be with me during the meeting?" Kaiba asks after the doors close.

"No. At least not this one... But I'll be right outside the room if you need me for anything," the younger brother says. Kaiba looks out at the city as Mokuba talks, the view getting increasingly better as more floors travel past.

He now shifts his focus to the transparent image of Kaiba, reflected onto the cityscape by the glass. "Mokuba... I don't know what I'm supposed to do." The true Seto Kaiba stares back at him, unable to attend his meeting.

"Well... I'm pretty sure you wanted that contract... Just pretend to know what's going on and at the end agree to their proposal," Mokuba tells him, as if it's that easy. The elevator stops with a ding and they walk out. Mokuba stays by the door as Kaiba enters the boardroom. Kaiba looks around the large table for a second before deciding that his chair must be the empty one on the end.

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Kaiba," one man says.

"I... was a little delayed," Kaiba explains as he slides into the seat.

"Now then, tell us how this proposal will benefit Kaiba Corporation," a man on Kaiba's side of the table asks.

Kaiba looks around the table. _'I can just imagine Kaiba being in this room during a meeting. He would probably know exactly what everyone is talking about and make sure he's getting a good deal... But it's better for me to just stay quiet. I might say something wrong and blow my cover.'_

From the hall, Mokuba listens to the conversation taking place within the boardroom. _'I was right; it _is_ a good deal for us,'_ Mokuba thinks, relieved.

Mokuba looks at his locket; not needing to open it, since he has the picture memorized. _'Big brother... How long is it going to take to get your memory back? You said the doctor told you it could be any minute... But I get the feeling that isn't true. This is the fourth day you've been without your memories - how many more days will follow? I should try to help somehow... But I know that you would want to do this on your own.' _A single tear runs down Mokuba's cheek as he leans his head back against the wall and closes his eyes momentarily.

"It's a deal," Kaiba tells the men in an even, business-like voice.

"Sign here and at the bottom of the second page," one man tells him, handing over a clipboard. Kaiba finds the blanks quickly and begins to sign his name, when a sudden pang of fear stabs him. _'I don't know Kaiba's signature,' _he thinks.

"I assure you, there's nothing in that contract which we haven't gone over," one man says with a good-natured smile. Kaiba looks up at him for a second, realizing that the man must think that he's only reading over the papers before signing.

"It's a good habit to always read what you're signing," Kaiba answers with a slight smirk. He decides to risk it and sign his name in plain cursive. Even if it's not Kaiba's signature, he doubts that anyone can tell.

* * *

Kaiba waits while a maid draws his bath, glad he has nothing else to do for the day. When she finishes, he steps into the large tub and allows himself to sink into the ocean of pink foam. It was a hard day and he's glad he can relax in the tub for a while. The first day of going to school and also having to go to Kaiba Corp.? What a nightmare! He closes his eyes to help release some tension, focusing on the feeling of the water running over his body.

Holding the steering wheel tightly, he tries to swerve out of the way. But it's too late. He slams on the brakes. The tires squeal loudly. He looks up from the steering wheel just before the collision. He's thrown into the windshield as it shatters around him. Why didn't he wear his seat belt? His hands are covered in blood. He feels something warm running down his face.

Kaiba wakes up suddenly, his heart still beating loudly. He looks around, seeing that he's still in the bathtub - no steering wheel or windshield anywhere in sight. Even so, he still feels a little jumpy.

After finishing his bath, he decides to talk to Mokuba about the dream. Kaiba finds his brother in the study, typing on the laptop. Kaiba knows he must be checking on the company - a job that he should be doing himself.

"Mokuba," his little brother looks up, "I fell asleep while taking my bath and I dreamt I was driving a car and had a wreck. Could that be a memory...?"

"I don't see how it could possibly be... You were never in a car wreck," Mokuba tells him, confused.

"Oh..."

"Well... Our biological father died in a car accident. But I don't see how it relates to your dream," Mokuba says.

"I guess it was only a nightmare then," Kaiba tells his brother. When Kaiba doesn't say anything else, Mokuba goes back to typing on the laptop.

_'So I still haven't remembered anything... Actually, I'm not sure I _want_ to remember. But I need to - for Mokuba and his brother,'_ Kaiba thinks. He looks over at Mokuba, who is concentrating on his task. _'On the other hand, maybe I _don't_ have to remember everything. Just because I don't remember something doesn't mean I can't learn it. It sounds like a deal to me - Kaiba gets his company taken care of and I don't have to wait for my memories to return._

_'I need to take charge of Kaiba Corp... And I need to learn Kaiba's hobbies, like Duel Monsters. I should start reading through those textbooks, too; I have another day of school tomorrow. I want to be on top of every situation from now on. I'm tired of feeling lost and unsure when I can do something about it.'_

"Mokuba, will you show me what you're working on?" Kaiba asks.

"Uh, sure," Mokuba says. Kaiba walks around the desk to look at the screen. "I'm mostly just looking over things. Do you remember how to check on the stocks from last time I showed you?"

"Yeah, I think so," Kaiba replies.

"Here; show me." Mokuba moves so Kaiba can reach the computer's touch pad.

"Okay. I think I remember..." Kaiba says and clicks on a few things to bring up a pie graph.

* * *

Kaiba sets a stack of textbooks on the little table in his bedroom. After sitting down, he opens the first book on the stack and begins to look through it. _'This looks more simple than I thought...' _he thinks. _'After I finish looking at these, I should see if I can find a book on business.'_

* * *

Mokuba lies awake in his bed, not able to get Kaiba's strange dream out of his head. _'Why does that dream Big Brother had... sound familiar?'_ he wonders. _'Wait... Maybe it _does_ have something to do with our biological father...'_

_Three-year-old Mokuba listened to his brother, who was in the bunk above his._

_"No... no..." his brother mumbled, restlessly rolling to and fro in his sleep, "No!" Seto yelled as he woke up._

_"What is it, Big Brother?" Mokuba asked._

_"Nothing Mokuba... Go back to sleep," Seto said and straightened the covers of his bed. He looked back down at Mokuba after he was done. "...Trust me," Seto told his brother, managing a weak smile._

_'That's it! Seto didn't want me to know, but he was having nightmares about our father's death even weeks after it happened... I don't remember much from when I was that young, but I don't think we were in the car when he wrecked. Seto must have made up most of the details. Could he have dreamed about _himself_ being in a car accident, too? Or was it really only a nightmare?'_


	7. Sexuality

**Chapter Seven: Sexuality**

_"Please father, I'll try harder! I'll read every word in the textbooks if I have to!"_

Kaiba wakes with a gasp. The peaceful sunlight shining in from the windows helps him to calm down.

* * *

"Did you have any dreams last night?" Mokuba asks at breakfast. Mokuba still isn't sure if the car wreck Kaiba dreamed about yesterday was a memory or not. If his brother had another dream like that one, maybe he can figure it out.

"I think I had one right before I woke up, but I can't remember it," Kaiba tells him - only knowing it was unpleasant. One of the maids brings out a plate of eggs Benedict.

"Tell me next time you have a dream; okay, Seto?" Mokuba asks. He turns to the maid, "That will be all. And bring the limo around front; it's almost time for school."

"Mokuba, why do we go to public schools, anyhow? Don't tell me I don't have enough money for a private tutor or something," Kaiba says after the maids leave the room.

"I just _wanted _to go to a public school, but you enrolled in Domino High only because you were looking for rare Duel Monster cards. I think you were going to quit, but you didn't get around to it yet."

"Then why don't I just quit now?" Kaiba asks, not looking forward to another day of school.

"Because it would draw unwanted attention. You went to the hospital four days ago and now you're quitting school?"

"I guess you're right..."

* * *

"Yuge... Ya really think Kaiba can't remember anything?" Joey asks.

"Do we have any reason to doubt him?" Yugi questions his friend.

"_Yes_! Didn't you see what he did ta me in class yesterday?"

"Joey, as much as I hate to say it, I think we should give him a chance," Téa tells him.

Bakura looks toward Téa thoughtfully, "If Kaiba really has amnesia-"

"I _thought_ I told you to be quiet about that!" Kaiba demands. Everyone turns around to see a very upset Kaiba behind them.

"Hey, man! We didn't tell _anyone_!" Tristan protests.

"What about _him_?" Kaiba asks coldly, pointing toward Bakura.

"Me...?" Bakura asks meekly, pointing toward his own face with an index finger. His deep brown eyes are wide in surprise.

"Bakura won't tell anybody," Yugi says in his friend's defense.

"And how do I know the rest of you won't? You already told _one_ person," Kaiba says.

"Bakura's our close friend; we tell each other _everything_. But I promise we won't tell anyone else, Kaiba," Yugi says.

"Fine..." Kaiba says with a sigh, relenting to them. "Well, I still haven't caught all of your names... Would you mind...?"

"Sure," Yugi says with a smile. "This is Bakura,"

"Hello," The white-haired boy says with a wave.

"Tristan," the teen with short brown hair nods, "Téa," the girl with shoulder-length brown hair and bright blue eyes smiles slightly, "and I'm Yugi. I believe you already _know_ Joey's name," Yugi says.

"Yeah... About that..." Kaiba begins.

"Just shut up, Kaiba! I don't need any 'a your insults!" Joey yells, his dark brown eyes flaming in anger underneath messy blond bangs.

"I was _going_ to say I was sorry about yesterday," Kaiba replies coldly.

_'I still don't trust that guy. He seems like the same ol' jerk ta me. - Once a Kaiba, _always_ a Kaiba,'_ Joey thinks.

* * *

Yugi and Joey sit with their desks pushed together during the lunch break, a small crowd around them. Kaiba watches from his seat, wondering what they're doing.

"I'll play the Dark Magician and attack your Tiger Axe, dropping your life points to zero," Yugi says. Boring of the games, the crowd begins to clear; only Yugi's closest friends stay to watch as the two reshuffle their decks. Kaiba now decides to make his move. Joey notices him getting up and watches as he nears Yugi's desk. Yugi looks up to see that Joey's distracted by something. He turns in the direction his friend is looking and sees Kaiba.

"What's up, Kaiba?" Yugi asks in his usual friendly manner.

"I was wondering what you two were doing," Kaiba replies.

"Me and Joey are just dueling," Yugi tells him.

"Can I watch you two?"

"Sure," Yugi says. Joey looks over at Kaiba suspiciously as the brunette takes a seat at a closer desk.

As the game plays out, Kaiba's eyes begin to wander and he finds himself absent-mindedly looking at Téa, who is standing right beside his seat. Unfortunately, she notices what he's looking at.

"Pervert!" She yells and gives him a good smack. Stunned and slightly red, he stares after her wide-eyed as she walks away. He glances toward Yugi and Joey, who, he realizes, have given him their undivided attention. Losing interest in how their game will turn out, he buries his head in his arms, embarrassed. What's he _supposed_ to do - not notice them?

* * *

"I'm telling you guys, he was _looking_ at my chest!" Téa complains after school.

"See? I told ya we couldn't trust 'im!" Joey says.

"Joey, how many times have you tried looking up her skirt?" Tristan asks calmly.

"Ah... Well, what about _you_?" Joey demands, getting in Tristan's face.

"I was only making a point!" Tristan yells and gets ready for a fist fight.

"Will you two stop fighting?" Yugi asks, jumping in between them.

"Yugi's right... Let's just forget the whole thing..." Téa suggests, not sure of what to think of her friends' argument.

_'Yugi...'_ Yami thinks.

_'Huh?'_ The two of them end up facing each other in a large, dark room, filled with complicated passages and staircases. "What is it?" Yugi asks him.

"I believe Kaiba may be telling the truth about losing his memories," Yami tells his other half.

"But what if it's only a trick? Kaiba's tricked us before, how do we know he wouldn't try it again?" Yugi asks.

"Because Kaiba has changed after Death-T," he answers simply. "Let me ask you this... have you ever seen Kaiba looking at a girl before? Kaiba has an image to uphold and wouldn't allow himself to act so pervertedly."

"Uh... Yeah, I guess you're right..." Yugi answers embarrassedly, not knowing his other self was so noble. Yugi wonders what Yami must think about the things _he's_ done.

* * *

"Hey, Seto," Mokuba greets, smiling widely as Kaiba walks inside the mansion.

"Hi, Mokuba," Kaiba tells him.

"You want to go to Kaiba Land today?" Mokuba asks.

"Actually I was thinking about..." Kaiba stops mid-sentence and looks at Mokuba. "Kaiba Land?"

"It's an amusement park you built," Mokuba explains. "It's right here in Domino. We could see if any arcade games or rides need to be repaired," Mokuba says. _'We have people who check on that type of thing, but Kaiba Land's really important to Seto and he might remember something if he goes. I really want him to go, but I don't know how he would react if he knew I was pushing him to remember like this...'_ Mokuba thinks, anxious for his brother's answer and feeling kind of guilty for not telling the whole truth.

"We could check on it another time, couldn't we? I was planning on going to Kaiba Corp. today," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Kaiba Corp? Why?" Mokuba asks, surprised.

"Kaiba's normally at Kaiba Corp. for a few hours a day, isn't he?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah... _You_ usually are," Mokuba agrees.

_'Should I tell Mokuba that I've decided to give up trying to remember my past? I won't let my memory loss be a setback...' _Kaiba thinks. "Well, yesterday's the only time I've been in the building during the past four days," Kaiba explains. "Shouldn't I be getting used to doing that type of thing?"

"I guess you're right. I'm just worried... You don't remember anything, Seto. How can you run the company until after you get your memory back?" Mokuba asks, looking up at his older brother worriedly.

"Mokuba... Do _you_ know everything about running a company? I appreciate you helping, but I doubt you can do it by yourself. It's time for me to take charge and start doing my job - with or without memories." Mokuba nods solemnly in response.

"Just one thing... Where do I go after entering the building?" Kaiba asks, his blue eyes growing wide as he realizes he has no clue. Mokuba smiles slightly for a second.

"I'll show you where your office is," he tells the elder Kaiba.

* * *

"Oh! Mr. Kaiba, welcome back! I've heard about your accident; I trust you're okay?" the secretary asks.

"I'm fine," Kaiba tells her. He walks into his office and sits down at the desk. _'What should I do, now that I'm here?'_ he wonders.

The phone rings and Kaiba picks it up. "Yes?"

"The president of Industrial Illusions is on line two, should I put him through?"

"Yeah... Sure," Kaiba tells her, unsure of what he should say to the man. "Hello?" Kaiba asks after being switched to the other line.

"Hello, _Kaiba-Boy_! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

(That last line is what's called over dramatizing. It's what 4kids does at the end of every episode to make it even more of a cliffhanger.)


	8. Only The Beginning

**-Part Two-**

**Chapter Eight: Only the Beginning**

"Hello?" Kaiba asks, talking into the receiver.

"Hello, Kaiba-Boy! Remember me?"

"You're the president of Industrial Illusions," Kaiba states over the phone, remembering what his secretary told him seconds before.

"Good answer for an amnesiac," Pegasus replies dryly.

Kaiba's surprised gasp travels across the Pacific to Pegasus's ears. He smirks in amusement, now positive it's true. "I'll tell you what. If you let me have the rights to one of your products, I won't tell a soul. Refuse, and... I wonder what your stockholders would think if they knew?" Pegasus taunts.

On the other side of the line, Kaiba remembers Mokuba having told him that people wouldn't buy stocks if they knew he had amnesia. The people already with stocks would probably sell everything they have. - It would lower the value of Kaiba Corp. stocks tremendously. _'He wouldn't...'_ Kaiba thinks incredulously.

"The fate of your company hangs in the balance."

_(Flash) Pegasus stood at the other end of the arena. "Ready, Kaiba? Your brother's fate hangs in the balance. Hm, hm, hm."_

_(Flash) Kaiba held his locket tightly. 'Little Brother... I'm here for you now, and I won't let anything stop me from rescuing you,' Kaiba thought._

_(Flash) "Ahhh..." Mokuba called and fell to the floor of the cell._

_"Mokuba?... You monster! What have you done! - What have you done to him!" Kaiba yelled. (Flash)_

"_Pegasus_! Stay away from my company _and_ my brother! If you pull a stunt like Duelist Kingdom _again_, I'll crush you!" Kaiba yells into the phone and slams it onto its cradle.

Back on the western coast of America, Pegasus sits behind his desk at Industrial Illusions headquarters. Stunned, he still holds the phone to his ear, listening to the dial tone. Was he wrong...?

In Domino, Kaiba leans over his desk and clutches his head. With his eyes wide and fingers from both of his hands in his thick hair, he wonders what just happened to him. Pieces of his past flashed through his mind as he was talking to Pegasus. It was so confusing. It seemed like Seto Kaiba took control of him during that time; as if Kaiba's ghost possessed his body during the end of the call. Frightened and confused, he tries to figure out what he had just experienced.

_'It had to be a memory... Or a group of them. But it felt so much like someone was controlling me and displaying a slideshow of their past inside my head. - It _wasn't_ a very pleasant experience. What happened to Mokuba in that sequence of events - or were the pieces even in order? Was I really the one talking over the phone to Pegasus a second ago, or was it Kaiba? - Right after the home movies, I was acting completely on impulse. I'm not even sure what I was talking about, not to mention why I was angry...'_

The phone sitting beside him starts ringing again. After thinking so much about the phone call with Pegasus, his emotions seem to drain from him as he presses the intercom button, leaving him vacant inside.

The voice of his secretary fills the room. "Your brother is here to see you."

"Let him in," Kaiba tells her. Seconds later, Mokuba bounces into the room.

"Did you do everything you were wanting to?" Mokuba asks.

"I just got here," Kaiba tells him, forcing a slight smile.

"Oh... Right," Mokuba answers embarrassedly, scratching the back of his head. "Well, you want some help with anything?"

"Not really," Kaiba answers. He can't stop thinking about the call and he's pretty sure Mokuba can tell he's not in the mood for fun and games. After several seconds, he breaks the silence by saying, "Pegasus called me a minute ago."

"Pegasus?" Mokuba asks in disbelief, his eyes wide.

"He said he would tell everyone I have amnesia if I didn't give him what he wanted," Kaiba tells his brother without emotion. He feels as though he had watched the event happen to someone else, instead of it happening to himself.

"What happened?" Mokuba asks.

"I hung up," he states.

"But what if he calls back! What if he tells everyone!" Mokuba asks frantically, his mind racing with possibilities.

"I don't believe he will."

"How do you _know_!" Mokuba asks worriedly.

"Because... I remembered something."

* * *

_'I've just decided to go on with my life without my memories, and now I remember something... At least I now know I really am Kaiba. ...I was starting to doubt it._

_'But there's also the matter of how Pegasus found out about my condition. Besides Mokuba, the only other people who know... are Yugi and his friends,'_ Kaiba thinks and narrows his eyes. The brothers enter the mansion. Mokuba heads upstairs while Kaiba stays on the first floor. Before leaving the room, Kaiba notices the silver briefcase resting in an armchair. He was in a hurry yesterday and forgot all about it.

_'I wonder what's inside...'_ Kaiba thinks. He picks up the briefcase, sits in the chair it once occupied, and lays it down on top of his lap. When opening it, he sees all the Duel Monster cards inside.

_"You keep some extras in a briefcase in case you need them for anything," _he faintly recalls Mokuba having said three days ago.

Then he notices something else in the briefcase. Some type of machine is secured to the top; wires, circuit boards, and resisters showing. _'I wonder what this is... Mokuba didn't mention anything else being in here,'_ Kaiba thinks.

* * *

Spread out on the covers of his bed, Mokuba rests with his hands behind his head, staring at the canopy above him.

_'Seto remembered something today...'_ Mokuba reminds himself again, a slight smile appearing on his lips. It lifts his spirits every time he thinks about it. _'After remembering _one_ thing, the rest of his memories are sure to follow,'_ he thinks happily.

* * *

Kaiba stares at the machinery in the attaché case. What is it for and why did Kaiba have it in the case in the first place? He _is_ Kaiba. He knows the answers... _somewhere_ in his mind.

What is he really like? He has the impression that he wasn't the nicest person, but how does he know it's true? And even if it is, he would still want to know about his interests, his personality, his likes and dislikes...

* * *

_'I wish Pegasus wasn't the first thing Seto remembered, though... I wanted my big brother to remember _good_ things, and instead he remembers one of the worst things possible...'_ Mokuba thinks. He sits up and sighs loudly. _'I hope he _does_ remember soon. I want to believe that my big brother's still here, but it's hard to when he doesn't seem to be... Today he referred to himself by name. I've caught myself talking about him as if he were another person, also, but it bothers me even more for _him_ to do so. Hopefully after having remembered something today, we'll both finally realize that he's himself.'_

* * *

Feeling curious and having nothing else to do, Kaiba decides to look around the mansion. He's seen most of the rooms on the first floor, so he'll look around on the second; he's hardly been in any of the rooms on the second floor except for the study. He leaves the briefcase on the floor beside the chair and walks upstairs. The long hallways on the second floor are like a maze of doors, and each one of the doors could hold another memory for him. He wonders what the doors may contain as he walks past each of them. He opens one at the end of the hall - and is surprised at what he sees inside.

* * *

_'I'm glad tomorrow's Saturday. Seto needed a break from school and some time to relax. Maybe if he doesn't have a lot to think about then his memories will come back on their own...' _Mokuba thinks.

* * *

Tools, wires, and machinery is scattered all over the room that Kaiba just stepped into. Strangely enough, he feels more at home in _this_ room then any other place he's been. Everything else he's seen in the mansion has been so orderly. It's quite a surprise for this room to actually look lived-in.

It seems to hold the secrets of Kaiba's personality; like his interests, habits, and ideas. It's one of the only places where Kaiba could have just been himself and not have to be the best at anything. And although he doesn't remember this, he can almost sense it.

* * *

The same mystery brunette from two days ago smiles at him lovingly. But she doesn't really seem mysterious to him, and never has seemed that way; as if he's known her his whole life. Even in the condition she's in now, she's as pretty as ever. She gestures him to feel her stomach and he gently places his hand over her abdomen. After feeling a kick, he looks up at her and grins proudly.

Everything in the room, besides the two of them, fades away. Then the woman begins to fade away into the darkness, as well; leaving him. "Noo! Mommm-"

"mmmmy...!" Kaiba finds himself saying as he wakes up. He looks around, wondering if anyone could have heard him.

_'That... That must have been a memory... Could my other dreams have been memories, too?'_


	9. Hitting the Fan

**Chapter Nine: Hitting the Fan**

"Seto? Are you in here?" The door opens and Mokuba walks inside. Kaiba doesn't notice, still sitting in the plush swivel chair in front of the wrap-around counter. "Does this room bring back any memories?" Mokuba asks after a minute, himself recalling his older brother being in the light teal room for over forty-eight hours on end at times.

"Not really," Kaiba answers, turning toward Mokuba, "but it _is_ an interesting room..." Kaiba glances around the room, looking once more at the scattered pieces of machinery and tools. _'My memory of this room seems to be on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't recall it...'_ he thinks.

"It's your private studio. You would come in here when experimenting with machinery. Inventing and fine-tuning, mostly," Mokuba tells him.

_'I think there's something about the room Mokuba didn't mention... Or maybe doesn't know about...'_ Kaiba thinks. _'But it could just be my imagination.'_

"Well... If you're done looking around this room..." Mokuba begins.

"Yeah. It's about time we eat breakfast," Kaiba says. The brothers leave the room and close the door behind them.

"So, did you sleep well?" Mokuba asks as they walk down the hallway.

"Most of the night. You?" Kaiba asks, beginning to walk slower so Mokuba can keep up.

"Yep. Slept like a baby," Mokuba replies with a smile.

"Mm..." Kaiba says, thinking.

"What is it?" Mokuba asks. He stops walking, noticing his older brother had.

"Mokuba... I've been wondering about something recently. How would you describe our mother?"

"I don't really know much about her... She died a little after I was born. You were five at the time, so I doubt you ever remembered her very well, yourself," Mokuba tells him. "What made you think of our mother?"

"I think I dreamed of her last night, about two hours after I fell asleep," Kaiba replies.

"What happened in the dream?" Mokuba asks, becoming interested.

"I noticed she was pregnant. She smiled at me, and then she disappeared..." Kaiba tells his brother.

* * *

"When we were at the orphanage, we played Chess together almost everyday. It's one of my favorite memories from that time," Mokuba says as he and Kaiba arrange the Chess pieces. Mokuba begins by moving a pawn. Kaiba decides to mirror the move and picks up his own pawn. When the pawn lands on the board, Kaiba's no longer in the living room.

_'I have to concentrate on this game. It might be the only chance we have...' Seto thought, looking back up at Mr. Kaiba after having made his move. 'I won't lose! If you're going to adopt anyone, it's going to be me!'_

All of the sudden, he's back at the mansion, Mokuba sitting across from him. Mokuba begins to take his turn, but Kaiba isn't paying attention.

_'It happened again! Like yesterday, it was as though I wasn't in control of my thoughts,'_ Kaiba thinks.

"Seto...?" Mokuba asks, noticing Kaiba seems preoccupied. "It's your turn..."

_'Should I tell Mokuba about the memory?'_ Kaiba wonders while taking his turn. At one point during their game, a maid with black hair, styled in a bob, walks into the room. She smiles when she sees the brothers playing Chess together. _'I shouldn't bother Mr. Kaiba at present... I'll ask at another time.'_

* * *

Kaiba and Mokuba tire of Chess after their second game.

"I can't believe there's nothing else to do today..." Mokuba says.

"Maybe we could play a different game..." Kaiba suggests. He remembers the deck he found Wednesday morning. "What about Duel Monsters? You said you would teach me how to play, remember?"

"Heh..." Mokuba turns red. "I don't really know all the rules... That was always _your_ game..."

"But then why did you offer to teach me!" Kaiba asks, startled.

"I was just trying to get out of going to school..." Mokuba says embarrassedly, with an apologetic smile. "I guess it's a good thing it didn't work..."

Kaiba sighs.

"Well... We could go to Kaiba Land today..." Mokuba says after a minute.

"That place you mentioned yesterday?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah. And... While I'm being honest..." Mokuba says, too ashamed to look directly in Kaiba's eyes, "the real reason I want you to go is because I think it could help you remember some things..."

"Why wouldn't you want me to know that reason?"

"I donno... I just didn't want to seem weak..." Mokuba says. After noticing a confused look from Kaiba, he explains. "I didn't want you to think I was desperate to have the big-brother-I'm-used-to back... I wanted you to think I was stronger then that..."

"You believe that I would think you were weak because you _miss_ who I'm supposed to be?" Kaiba asks demandingly.

"You said that emotions were a weakness..." Mokuba begins, trying to justify what he thought.

"_Forget_ what I said in the past - you have every right to miss your brother," Kaiba tells Mokuba confidently. The younger brother looks up at Kaiba. "Besides... I'm beginning to remember some things, so you don't need to worry as much. - I'm pretty sure several of my dreams involve my past, I remembered something yesterday, and I just remembered something today while we were playing Chess."

"You remembered something today?" Mokuba asks.

"Yeah... In the memory, I was playing Chess with a man and it had something to do with adoption..." Kaiba recalls.

"It was probably when you played against Gozoburo!" Mokuba says excitedly, recognizing the memory. "He came to our orphanage looking for someone to adopt, when you challenged him to a game of Chess. If you won, he would adopt us - and you ended up defeating him."

"It must have been difficult... He was the world Chess champion, wasn't he?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah. And it was," Mokuba replies. _'Wait... Did Seto remember Gozoburo was the Chess champion earlier, or did he remember it just now?'_

"So... Do you still want to go to Kaiba Land today?" Kaiba asks. _'I owe it to Mokuba to try to remember something from there... I didn't know he missed his brother so much...'_

"Sure. Just remember that no one can find out you have amnesia. - You're supposed to know the place inside and out."

* * *

"Look, it's Kaiba!" a boy says after Kaiba and Mokuba walk inside. Between occasional smiles and waves to fans of the indoor amusement park, Kaiba looks around. He didn't think there would be so many people in the building. Kids of all ages are swarming around the various games and rides.

_'I don't know why Mokuba thought I would remember much from going here... So it's a theme park. Big deal... What's so special about it?'_ Kaiba glances around the floor again. _'I guess Kaiba did the blueprints of it or something... Maybe I should quit looking at the games and examine the architecture, instead... Besides, I'm only on the first floor, so maybe there's something I'll remember on a different floor.'_

"Hey, Yuge, c'mere for a minute."

"What is it, Joey?"

_'Yugi's here!'_ Kaiba thinks, surprised. He finds them by some arcade games several feet away.

"I want ya ta be player two in this game I'm playin'," Joey answers.

"Oh, this one? Sure," Yugi says. He begins to get a coin out of his pocket for the game when he hears someone clear their throat. Yugi and Joey turn around to see Kaiba standing behind them with his arms crossed.

"Hi, Kaiba," Yugi says. "You here to play a few games, too?"

"Kaiba quickly glances around without turning his head, seeing that there's a lot of kids close by. "We need to talk."

"Uh... Sure..." Yugi says, wondering if Kaiba's angry about something.

"Mokuba, find us a private room where we can discuss a few things," Kaiba tells his brother. Mokuba looks up at him questioningly, but leads them to a room.

After shutting the door, Joey yells, "Now tell us what all this is about, Moneybags!"

Kaiba glares at Joey momentarily for the name-calling. "Pegasus called me yesterday. He found out I had amnesia, and _you're_ the only people I've told," Kaiba says coldly.

"You told _Yugi_?" Mokuba asks his brother, amazed. _'But Seto doesn't trust Yugi and his friends... Even if he doesn't remember that, why would he tell them?'_

"It slipped," Kaiba answers simply.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Mokuba asks.

"It was two days ago, the day of that meeting. I forgot all about having told them."

"Wait a minute! You think we told _Pegasus_!" Joey demands.

"Well, _someone_ must have," Kaiba throws back.

Yugi's stayed out of the discussion so far. He doesn't want to see people fight, but he also doesn't want to be in a fight, himself. But then, what they were arguing about finally occurred to him. "Kaiba, wait!" Yugi calls out over the argument. Everyone pauses to see what Yugi has to say. "If you're talking about Pegasus, he must have _hundreds_ of ways he could find out about something like that!"

"All available personnel to Floor One, Section C! A arena fan malfunctioned!" a man calls from a walkie-talkie which has been left lying on the desk in the room.

"Seto, that could be something serious!" Mokuba says wide-eyed.


	10. An Afternoon at Kaiba Land

****

Chapter Ten: An Afternoon at Kaiba Land

"Mokuba, take us to Section C!" Kaiba instructs. Kaiba, Yugi, and Joey all run out of the room, following Mokuba.

When they get to the area, they see several people rushing over to a Duel Arena. Kaiba outruns them and gets to the arena first. He can feel the heat coming off the machine from it overheating, and he hears a buzzing noise that sounds as though there's a possibility that the arena could explode any minute. Kaiba goes straight for the control panel on the side of the arena, close to the floor. He opens the panel door, exposing the wires inside the machine. When he begins to reach inside, he realizes that he doesn't know what he's doing and freezes. Should he pull a wire? The blue one? The yellow? What if it only makes the situation worse? Then he notices a black knob to the left of the wires labeled "Emergency Shutoff Switch" and turns it to "off". The buzzing sound quits almost immediately afterward. Kaiba stands and turns toward the crowd of workers.

"There was a short in the wiring," Kaiba announces and holds up a piece of damaged wire. "Who's in charge of this sector! Each piece of machinery is supposed to be checked daily! I don't need a lawsuit on my hands!" Kaiba yells and tosses the piece of wire to the floor as he marches away. Mokuba and the others catch up with him as he leaves the scene.

"Seto, how did you know what to do!" Mokuba asks, amazed.

"Lucky guess," Kaiba answers with a shrug. "...Let's just say that it's a good thing I found an off switch."

"But how did you know where the control panel was? That was the first time you saw a Duel Arena since the accident!" Mokuba says.

Kaiba stops to think about it, not really sure himself. "I don't know. I guess it was just instinct."

Joey runs up beside Kaiba and begins walking alongside him. "Now all that's over, let's continue that discussion of ours!"

"What do you want?" Kaiba asks with a sigh.

"What I want is for you to tell me just why you would think I'd be workin' for a creep like Pegasus!" Joey says angrily.

"I could ask the same of you..."

"Huh?..." Joey says, so surprised that he stops walking for a second. _'Was that a reference to Duelist Kingdom?'_

"You traitor, Kaiba! You really are_ workin' for Pegasus!" Joey said accusingly when at the front of Pegasus's castle._

"Don't insult me! I'm not fighting for these scum!" Kaiba responded.

Joey runs back to Kaiba's side. "And what was _that_ supposed ta mean!" Joey asks. "Is this whole amnesia thing a trick!"

"What?... I don't know what you're talking about..." Kaiba says, looking genuinely confused. Joey looks at Kaiba suspiciously for a second. "Look. If we're going to talk more about Pegasus, we should return to that room before someone overhears," Kaiba says. Joey decides that Kaiba's right and doesn't say anything else, waiting until they return to the small office.

When arriving there, Kaiba sits in one of the chairs and crosses his legs, ready for a long stay. The others sit down as well.

"Okay, since you insist you haven't told anyone, explain how Pegasus could have found out," Kaiba says, not wanting to get back into a big argument with Joey.

"I donno! ...Maybe it has something to do with that weird eye of his!" Joey says, getting on the defensive.

"Eye? What eye?" Kaiba asks.

"Pegasus has something called the Millennium Eye. It allows him to read people's minds," Yugi informs him.

"You expect me to believe that? Let me guess, Industrial Illusions is a Psychic Hotline Network," Kaiba says sarcastically.

"No. It's true," Mokuba says. "You told me about it before. You actually saw him do it to a person once."

"You think that was how he found out?" Kaiba asks his brother, believing the stuff about the Millennium Eye after Mokuba agrees with Yugi and Joey on it.

"I don't know... Pegasus is a really tricky person. Like Yugi said earlier, there might be hundreds of ways he could find out," Mokuba tells him.

"And these two could be one of those ways, couldn't they?" Kaiba asks suspiciously.

"You _do_ know we're still here, don't ya?" Joey asks, annoyed.

"I trust them, Seto. Yugi wouldn't tell anyone," Mokuba says.

"You know them?" Kaiba asks, wondering if Mokuba could somehow know the kids in his class.

"Yeah. We're friends," Mokuba replies.

"Well, if you say so, they must be alright," Kaiba decides.

"Hmph. It's about time ya figure that out," Joey says.

"Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?" Kaiba asks. Mokuba and Yugi snicker.

"What!" Joey yells, standing up. He notices a clock on the opposite wall and forgets about retaliating when seeing the time. "Oh no! It's that late already! We're supposed ta meet Téa!" Joey exclaims. "C'mon, Yuge!" he says as he opens the door.

"Go on without me. I'll catch up in a minute, Joey," Yugi tells him.

"You sure?" Joey asks.

"Mhmm," Yugi answers with a nod.

"_I_ could help you look for her," Mokuba volunteers. The two of them run out of the room, leaving Kaiba and Yugi to themselves.

"So... How have you been doing, Kaiba?" Yami asks.

_'Yugi changed all of the sudden!'_ Kaiba thinks, startled. Yami smirks at the surprise he sees in Kaiba's eyes.

"I guess I've been okay," Kaiba responds.

"Have you remembered much yet?" Yami asks.

"A few things..." Kaiba tells him. "It's like working a puzzle... I have a few pieces, but I can't figure out where they go."

Yugi smirks in amusement at his analogy. "We're not so different, Kaiba. I know how you feel... Trying to find clues of who you really are, sometimes feeling so lost and confused, not even sure if you're a good guy or on the side of evil..." Yami says, beginning to like expressing his thoughts to someone else.

"You _don't_ know how I feel, Yugi," Kaiba says as he stands. He leaves the room and the door slams shut behind him. Yami sighs.

* * *

Mokuba continues to show his brother around Kaiba Land after Yugi, Joey, and Téa leave. For Kaiba, one of the most interesting things in the building is the Duel Arenas, which Mokuba now tells him were built in alliance with his and Pegasus's companies, and which were designed by him. After showing him one of the last floors of the park, they return to the elevator. One of the floor numbers attracts Kaiba's interest.

"What's on this floor?" Kaiba asks Mokuba, pointing at the button for the top floor. The words "Death-T, the Theme Park of Death" comes to Kaiba's mind.

"Nothing. It's not important," Mokuba says and pushes the button for the first floor. _'_That_ floor isn't something I brought Seto here to remember.'_

* * *

Kaiba closes the front door. "I think I'll go on to bed now, Mokuba. I'm kind of tired," Kaiba says.

"Okay, Seto. Have a good night," Mokuba tells his brother as Kaiba walks upstairs. A few seconds later, the maid with short black hair walks into the room.

"Mr. Mokuba, we have been trying to figure out what your brother would like us to do with this attaché case," the maid says, gesturing toward the briefcase sitting on the floor beside a chair. "At first we thought we should leave it where it lies in case Mr. Kaiba wanted it in this location for a reason, but it's been here since Thursday afternoon."

_'It's the briefcase Seto brought home from school... He must have taken it Monday, the day of the accident, but I don't know why he would have it at school...'_ Mokuba thinks. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it," Mokuba tells her. She smiles at him, bows, and leaves the room.

* * *

Kaiba walks down the hall on the third floor, headed toward his room. The tinted-blue walls and royal blue carpet begin to change as he walks - fading into a wider hallway, colored with reds and browns. He hears a gasp as a boy is thrown to the floor in front of him, a red collar around his neck.

_"Mutts like you walk on all fours!" Gozoburo yelled. Seto stared at the deep red carpet before him as a tear fell from one of his eyes. "From today on, you do whatever I say, you hear! I went to that orphanage to find an heir, not a mongrel like you! If you ever want to inherit my company, you'll have a lot to learn and you'd better not be slow!"_

With his eyes closed, Kaiba clutches his head as he leans against a wall of the hallway for support. _'Why do these memories have to be so random? They seem to happen when I least expect them and when I actually _try_ to remember something, I can't,'_ Kaiba thinks. _'I don't _want_ to remember anything else... I don't want to know anymore about Kaiba's past or personality. I don't _care_ who he is, I'm _not_ him,'_ Kaiba thinks, still trying to shake the memory from his head._ 'A person's past shapes who they are. But I don't have a past. - That means that I can be whoever I want.' _He opens his eyes and realizes that his bedroom is the next door down. He opens the door and walks inside, closing the door behind him. He sees something from the corner of his eye and turns to his right to see himself in the full-length mirror. He looks at his reflection for a second and then sneers. "_You're_ why I've been having these visions! Get out of my head! Leave me _alone_!" Kaiba yells, picking up a porcelain vase and throwing it across the room as he says the last sentence. The mirror shatters and fragments from the mirror and vase scatter on the floor around the frame.

**

* * *

**

By the way, this chapter has a illustration with it. Check out my profile to view the picture.


	11. Rules of the Game

**Chapter Eleven: Rules of the Game**

Kaiba wakes by the sun, having had a good night's sleep and being ready to begin the day.

_'No dreams...'_ he thinks, relieved. When getting out of bed, he notices that the mirror has been replaced and the shards of glass picked up. - Almost as though last night was only a bad dream. He puts on his green pants and begins buttoning up the matching long-sleeved shirt when feeling Kaiba's Duel Monster cards in the pocket. Remembering having found them a few days ago, he removes the cards and fans them out in his hand for a minute before leaving the room. He finds one of the mansion's staff in the hallway and pauses to talk to him.

"When you see Mokuba, tell him I've gone for a walk and will be back in a few hours," Kaiba says.

"Should I call a couple security guards to accompany you?" he asks.

"That won't be necessary," Kaiba replies.

"Very well, Sir," the man says and resumes what he was doing.

* * *

_'That was a longer walk than I thought...'_ Kaiba thinks as he enters the heart of Domino. He realizes that he doesn't like the feeling of loose-fitting pants, having been wearing baggy jeans for the last several minutes. Now clad in jeans, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap, as well as a backpack, he's ready to look around the city without anyone recognizing him as Kaiba. He starts walking down a street but turns around when seeing that it's a dead-end.

"Hey, Kid, are you lost?" a man watering his lawn asks.

"No. ...I'm new here and just wanted to look around. You wouldn't happen to know of some sites in this city, would you?" Kaiba asks.

"Well... There's the pier, and a beach with a nice view of the lighthouse, the park, museum, train station... If you like games, there's Kaiba Land and there's an arcade not too far from here," the man tells him. He notices the baseball cap Kaiba's wearing. "Or if you're a fan of sports, we have a nice baseball diamond and there's a new football stadium being built."

"That's a lot of things," Kaiba says, impressed.

"I'll make you a map," the man says and lays his water hose on the grass. He gets a piece of scrap paper from his pocket and makes a rough sketch of the points of interest, labeling buildings and the streets they're on. Kaiba thanks him and heads in the direction of the closest thing on the map - the park.

After a few minutes of walking, he stops, looking at the map. _'Where's this next street...'_ he wonders, glancing up at a street sign. He's walked past several streets and hasn't found the one leading to the park. He notices a poster on a window of the shop next to him. It's a picture of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Ryu-Ran - although Kaiba doesn't know the second monster - advertising Duel Monster cards. He walks inside the store to look around.

"May I help you?" the person behind the counter asks. Kaiba walks to the counter, pulling the bill of his baseball cap farther over his face.

"I was wondering about Duel Monster cards," Kaiba tells him, his blue eyes peaking out from under his cap.

"I just got in some new packs yesterday," he says and puts a box of them on the counter, not sure of how many the boy in front of him might want. "Do you play the game often?"

"Not really. I'm just a beginner," Kaiba tells him. "Say, you wouldn't have any tips for me, would you?"

"Well, what do you know about the game so far?" the man asks.

"Um... I've heard of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Kaiba says.

"So you've heard of Kaiba, eh? I guess pretty much everyone has," he says thoughtfully. "Kaiba's almost unbeatable with those three Blue-Eyes of his. There's only been four of them made."

"So I've heard," Kaiba says. _'Or did Mokuba say there were three made?...'_

"Is he the reason you've decided to become a duelist?"

"Actually... I guess he is. But I want to have a strategy of my own, with my own cards," Kaiba says.

"That's a good idea. No one can be like Kaiba but Kaiba."

"I don't think anyone would _want_ to be..." Kaiba mutters, remembering the bad flashbacks he's had of his past. He picks out two packs and pays for them. "Could you explain a few of the game's rules to me?"

"Go ahead and open those packs and I'll show you a few things," the man tells him. Kaiba opens the packs. The card on top is Z-Metal Tank. "You and your opponent both start with five cards," the man begins. As he talks, he gets out a game mat and lays it on the counter. "You draw a card at the beginning of each of your turns. See the top number on that card of yours? That's its attack points. When you play a monster in attack position," the man says, demonstrating on the counter with a card of his own, "and next turn your opponent plays one in attack mode also, and then orders an attack, the monsters go head to head. The one with the most attack points wins the round."

"That makes sense," Kaiba says. "First draw five cards and draw an additional card each turn. If you play a monster in attack mode and attack, it faces off against your opponent's monster; the one with the most attack points wins. Right?"

"That's right. But remember that each monster can only attack once per turn. You can have five monsters on the field at once, but you can only summon one monster each turn," he says, showing how many spaces are on the game mat for monster cards. "When a monster loses a round, the card's sent to the discard pile, or graveyard, as it's known in Duel Monsters," the man says and points toward the graveyard space.

"Uh-huh..." Kaiba says thoughtfully.

"Now, the second number is the monster's defense points. When you lay the card _sideways_ on the field, it's in defense mode," the man says and switches the card on the counter to defense. "You can't attack with it as long as it's in defense, but your opponent can still attack it with one of _their_ attack position monsters. When that happens, if your defense is stronger than your opponent's attack, you win the round - but your opponent's monster stays on the field. If your defense is weaker than their attack, then your monster is destroyed and sent to the graveyard. You can change the positions of your monsters, but only once per turn and not the first turn they're played. Also, both you and your opponent start the game with two thousand life points. The game is over once either you or your opponent's life points drop to zero. You usually lose life points when losing a round, but when your monster is in defense mode, your life points are safe. When both monsters are in attack, subtract the difference between the winning monster's attack and the losing monster's attack from the losing player's life points. When a defense monster wins the round, subtract the difference of the attacking monster's attack and the defense monster's defense from the life points of the player with the attacking monster."

"Um... Could you run that by me again...?" Kaiba asks.

"Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it in time. Let's see what your next card is," he says. Kaiba moves the top card to the back of the stack and looks at the next card.

Kaiba widens his eyes. "It doesn't have any attack or defense points!"

The man laughs. "It's a magic card - the Ring of Defense. The game is a little more exciting when you add in some magic and traps. They're played face down below the area for monsters," he says and points toward the magic and trap card zone. "Trap cards can't be activated the same turn you play them, while magic cards can be activated directly from your hand during your turn. But you need to pay attention to the _type_ of magic or trap you have. That symbol in the top right hand corner tells whether it's a permanent, ritual, quick-play, or equip magic card - besides the everyday type, which doesn't have a symbol. The Ring of Defense is a _quick-play_ magic card. For traps, besides the average trap card, there's also a continuous type as well as counter-traps," the man tells Kaiba.

"I'm sorry, but it's just too overwhelming for me," Kaiba tells him embarrassedly.

"I guess I shouldn't tell you about effect monsters, then... Ah, don't worry about it. The game takes a little while to learn, but once you've learned it, it's easy to remember."

"Wanna bet...?" Kaiba mumbles as the bell on the top of the store's door rings, warning them of a customer.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Nothing... I should go. I've taken up enough of your time already."

"Come back anytime," the man says as Kaiba walks through the door.

Kaiba turns right on the next street down, which is the street that the park is located. When getting to the park, a few pigeons take flight as he sits on a bench.

_'It's nice to get away from the mansion for a little while... Especially after yesterday...'_ Kaiba thinks, remembering the tiring Saturday - which included a talk with Mokuba, an emergency at Kaiba Land, a heated argument with Joey, and bad memories involving his stepfather. _'Even if it's only for a few hours, I like just being _me_ and not having to fit into Kaiba's shoes or having to think about all the mysteries and uncertainties involving my life during this point in time.'_ Kaiba looks out at the scenery in front of him, which seems so serene and peaceful. After a few minutes, his mind drifts off to another time.

_A highway. Cars zooming by. Interesting tall lamp posts. Someone on each side of me, both of them holding my hand while walking on the sidewalk. Smiles and laugher. Watching cars drive by on the highway._

_At the playground, mommy pushes the swing. Daddy asks what I have whenever I catch a lizard or grasshopper in my hands._

Kaiba waits for more, but nothing else comes. He thought he didn't want to remember anything else, but it was such a pleasant memory. _'I wonder where that road is which leads to the playground... But I don't even know if it's in Domino...'_ Kaiba thinks._ 'It seems like we would go there pretty often... At least every week or two, I'd say..._

_'I guess it was before Mokuba was born... He wasn't in the memory, but it didn't feel like he was missing. That's right... Mokuba said our mother died right after he was born.'_

Kaiba looks around the park from his seat. _'How long has it been since I left the mansion? I guess it's about time I head back.'_


	12. Religion

**Chapter Twelve: Religion**

As Kaiba tries to find his way back to the mansion, he begins to pass by a church. It must have just been dismissed because people were walking out of it. That's when Kaiba recognizes one of the people walking down the stairs - a boy holding an older woman's hand.

Mokuba looks up for a second and his eyes lock on the teen standing on the sidewalk, several feet away. _'Seto!'_ he thinks, his eyes wide in surprise.

* * *

Mokuba went up to the altar, where people were praying. He kneeled and closed his eyes. _'Please God; help my brother...'_ Mokuba prayed as a couple tears ran down his face. He thought about what had happened last night.

_'If I hurry, I can catch Seto before he goes to sleep... I seriously doubt he'd remember why he had the briefcase at school, but I can at least put it in his room for him,' Mokuba thought, heaving the briefcase as he headed toward Kaiba's room. He stopped suddenly when he saw his brother leaning against the wall, looking as though he was in pain. Just a second after Mokuba first saw him there, Kaiba entered the bedroom and closed the door._

_"_You're_ why I've been having these visions!" Mokuba heard his brother yell. "Get out of my head! Leave me _alone_!" After that, Mokuba thought he heard something break._

_'Seto...' Mokuba thought. His eyebrows had begun to furrow and his lip quiver as he looked toward his brother's door. He turned away quickly when the dam broke and he started crying._

Mokuba got up from the altar and went back to his seat.

"Mokuba, what's wrong?" the woman sitting beside him asked.

"It's nothing really... I'm just worried about my brother; he's been having a tough time lately..." Mokuba told her while looking down.

"I know you too well for _that_ story," she said and gently lifted his face toward her with her fingertips. "It's _not_ nothing." Mokuba looked in her eyes, trying to see what she meant. She smiled at him. "Don't worry, Mokuba; I'll keep him in my prayers." After church was let out, they walked outside together.

* * *

Mokuba walks over to his brother after the crowd clears. "Seto, what are you _wearing_!" he asks Kaiba, startled.

_'_Great_... I wish I knew people could see through my disguise that easily before I _did_ this,'_ Kaiba thinks, annoyed. "I just wanted to explore the town a little without anyone recognizing me," Kaiba says with a shrug. "I did it on a whim..." he adds after a few seconds of silent staring from Mokuba.

"Well... If you ever decide to do this again, let _me_ pick out your disguise..." Mokuba tells him.

"Fine by me," Kaiba says. They begin walking down the sidewalk.

"How did you manage to get those clothes without letting anyone find out what you were doing?" Mokuba asks him.

Kaiba smirks. "That's _my_ little secret."

"Hmph," Mokuba says and playfully sticks out his tongue.

"I guess I should change now..." Kaiba says. "I have my other clothes in the backpack." They stop at a store and Kaiba changes in the bathroom.

"Mokuba, why didn't you tell me you go to church?" Kaiba asks after they leave the store and dispose of the other clothes.

"You're an atheist..." Mokuba tells him quietly while looking down. "You don't believe in fate or any type of higher being - not after our parents died. I wasn't sure what you would say when I decided to become a Christian... So I didn't tell you."

"So you've been sneaking to church every Sunday?" Kaiba asks, astonished.

Mokuba nods, confessing. "It wasn't very long ago when I started going."

"Why did you pick Christianity, anyhow? - Don't you think Buddhism or Shintoism would be more appropriate?" Kaiba asks half jokingly.

"Christianity seemed like the best religion for me... I held a lot of the same values that the church does. And the religion believes in forgiveness..." Mokuba says, remembering some of the awful things he's done in the past; glad he can put them behind him.

Kaiba stops walking. "Mokuba... I think your brother would want you to be open about your beliefs," Kaiba says and closes his eyes. "Trust me... I know I would have understood," he says solemnly.

"You wouldn't know, Seto!" Mokuba yells. Kaiba opens his eyes and looks at Mokuba, surprised. Tears begin to run down Mokuba's face as he glares at Kaiba.

"Mokuba..." Kaiba says.

"No, Seto! I know you don't want any part of your past," Mokuba says, making a horizontal motion with his arm for emphasis, "and I can't blame you; but don't tell me what _my brother_ would or wouldn't do!"

"I'll always be your brother - no matter _what_ happens to me," Kaiba tells him.

"You don't believe that _yourself_, so don't expect _me_ to." Kaiba's too stunned to think of anything to say. "Don't pretend for me, Seto!" Mokuba says with tears in his eyes and runs past Kaiba. Kaiba's long blue jacket ripples in the breeze Mokuba causes when darting by him.

_'Wh... what was that about...?'_ Kaiba wonders, staring after Mokuba.

* * *

Kaiba knocks on his brother's bedroom door. "Mokuba, may I come in?" Kaiba asks. Mokuba unlocks the door and turns the knob, letting the older brother in. Mokuba walks over to his bed and sits on the edge, waiting for Kaiba to say something. "I guess this is pretty serious, since there's only been one or two other times you've ever been mad at me..." Kaiba says in a remorseful tone. Mokuba doesn't reply. "I've been thinking about what happened between us earlier today. I think I understand now - what you meant about seeming weak..."

_"Why wouldn't you want me to know that reason?" Kaiba asked._

_"I donno... I just didn't want to seem weak..." Mokuba said. "I didn't want you to think I was desperate to have the big-brother-I'm-used-to back... I wanted you to think I was stronger than that..."_

"You didn't want me to pity you, but that's just what I've been doing. I'm sorry, Mokuba... That wasn't my intent..." Kaiba tells his brother.

"I shouldn't have said anything today... Please forgive me, Seto; I wasn't thinking," Mokuba says. "Let's forget the whole thing..."

"No. - I shouldn't have kept things from you. It's true what you said earlier - that I don't want to remember my past. I would hate to have to tell you some of the things I've remembered; they're so nightmarish. I hope you can understand; but even if you can't, you deserve to know about my decision."

* * *

_'Seto... I've been so inconsistent... I wanted you to remember the good things and protect you from the bad; but it looks like you're remembering the bad, anyway. How can I want you to remember your past, but try to keep it from you? ...How do I know you'll still be Seto without remembering the bad memories as well as the good? Perhaps if I tried to explain things to you, the bad memories wouldn't have been so surprising...'_ Mokuba thinks as he gets ready for bed. _'Maybe I shouldn't try to get Seto to remember anything else... So much has happened to us, it could be a blessing for him to forget it all... I'll try to focus on creating _new _memories for us instead of trying to get Seto to remember the old ones.'_ Mokuba gets under the covers. _'There's school tomorrow... It will be the third time he's gone to school since the accident. I hope no one in the school figures out that he has amnesia... Maybe Yugi will tell him if he does anything unusual.'_

* * *

_'Mommy, wake up...' Seto stood still and held his father's hand. He didn't bother to wipe away the tears that were running down his cheeks as he looked toward the closed coffin. The sound of crying made the otherwise silent event even more depressing, but no one said anything about the noise and his father couldn't soothe the baby, anyhow._

Kaiba wakes with a start. He decides to try calming himself down before going back to sleep. His first thought is to go to that room with all the machinery. But then his thoughts turn toward Duel Monsters and he gets Kaiba's deck and sits at the little table a few feet from the end of his bed. The card on the top of the deck is a magic card. Remembering what he was told today, he puts it face down on the table, in a vertical position. The next card is a monster, which he places face up above the magic card. He looks at the attack and defense points on the card, but he can't remember which number is which, so he isn't sure whether he should lay it vertically or horizontally.

* * *

Yugi rolls over. Still not satisfied, he rolls over again. He eventually wakes, finding the covers jumbled up on the bed. The first two buttons of his printed pajama top are unbuttoned and he takes the time to fix them. He glances to his left to see Yami standing a few feet away, looking out the skylight. He's still wearing his day clothes, suggesting he hasn't been to sleep.

_'What is it, Yami?'_ Yugi asks. Yami doesn't move his head, still gazing up at the night sky, watching clouds moving past.

_'The wind is moving out of the southwest... That's not a good sign, Yugi...'_ Yami tells him.

_'What do you mean?'_ Yugi asks.

_'It may foretell an approaching storm.'_


	13. Just His Luck

**Chapter Thirteen: Just His Luck**

Kaiba wakes up around six o'clock. When remembering school, he considers staying in bed all day, but he gets dressed anyhow and leaves the room. When going past the second floor, on his way to the first, he hears something in the study. He enters the room to find the phone ringing. He quickly picks up the phone, not bothering to walk around to the other side of the desk. No one else is around to hear the phone... If _he_ weren't here, no one would have answered it.

"Yes?" he asks. He looks toward the window as he stands there, contemplating over the mysterious call.

"Sorry to bother you at home, Mr. Kaiba, but Mr. Pegasus said it was urgent. Should I transfer him over?" the Kaiba Corp. secretary asks. Kaiba grimaces, recognizing the name from a few days ago.

"Fine," Kaiba says, deciding he should at least see what Pegasus wants now.

"Hey, Kaiba-Boy!" Pegasus says cheerfully. "Have you decided to take me up on that offer we've discussed earlier?"

"What!" Kaiba demands. "I thought I already put an end to this conversation three days ago!"

Pegasus tsks. "You can't get rid of me _that_ easily, Kaiba," Pegasus says in a serious tone.

"I'm not giving you _anything_! You don't have any proof that I have amnesia, so no one you tell will believe you!" Kaiba tells him. _'Can he really read my mind? Is that how he knows I have amnesia?'_

"Ah, but can you take that risk? How do you _know_ I don't have any proof? If the press _does_ believe me somehow... then what?" Pegasus asks.

"Grr..." Kaiba says as he tries to think of a way out.

"Hmm... Why don't we settle this in a duel?" Pegasus asks.

"A duel?"

"Don't tell me the famous Seto Kaiba doesn't know what dueling is?" Pegasus says with exaggerated astonishment. "Oh, that's right! - He's not half the man he used to be!" Pegasus jokes.

"Of course I know what Duel Monsters is!" Kaiba yells into the phone.

"Then you agree to our duel?" Pegasus asks.

"Wha-" Kaiba begins.

"Unless you're afraid you'll lose to me. - Which makes sense if you can't remember how to play..."

"No. - Just name the time and place," Kaiba says. _'He's just some business owner. What would he know about dueling? I'm sure I can bluff my way through this...'_

"Okay... I'll even give you a chance to jog your memory, having the duel at the same place we've dueled before. Meet me there at one p.m. tomorrow," Pegasus says and hangs up before Kaiba can say anything.

_'What have I gotten myself into?...'_ Kaiba thinks as he reaches over the desk to hang up the phone. _'If I _don't_ win against him, he'll have the proof he needs to put me out of business. If I just don't show up, he can't prove a thing; but he'll assume it's because I don't want him getting the proof he needs. In that case, he'll keep searching for proof... Eventually he _will_ find something - if he hasn't already. The only way I can put an end to this is to _prove_ to him that I don't have amnesia. That means I have to duel him and win. It also means I have to figure out where Kaiba and he had dueled before. I can't consider the possibility that he knows for certain from reading my mind. At least not now,'_ Kaiba thinks. He walks out of the room after a minute and goes downstairs. He finds Mokuba sitting on a couch doing last minute homework.

"Mokuba," Kaiba says, sitting down beside his brother. Mokuba looks up from his work. "Have I ever dueled Pegasus in the past?"

Mokuba wonders why Kaiba would want to know, after his brother having admitted he doesn't want to remember his past. "Yes..." Mokuba says.

"Where did we duel?" Kaiba asks.

"On an island near the west coast of America," Mokuba tells him.

_'That's almost halfway around the globe!'_ Kaiba thinks, surprised. "Thanks, Mokuba." Kaiba begins to walk away.

"Seto, where are you going? Aren't you going to eat something?" Mokuba calls to him.

"No. I think I'll skip breakfast today," Kaiba tells him while walking away.

"But Seto, you're still underweight from..." Mokuba says, trailing off after the last word.

Kaiba looks over his shoulder. "From what?" he asks.

"It's not important..." Mokuba says and looks away. Kaiba leaves the room. _'I won't mention your past if you don't want to hear it. You might even be better off without it. But I wish you would eat... You've lost so much weight during those six months after Yugi defeated you...'_

* * *

Kaiba looks up from the time zone chart he's pulled up on the laptop. _'I'd have to leave around five today in order to get to the coast of America at one o'clock tomorrow...'_ Kaiba thinks. _'I just wish I knew which island it was... There's _several_ islands near America...'_ He hurries to find Mokuba before needing to leave for school.

"Duelist Kingdom. It was the sight of a Duel Monsters Tournament." Mokuba replies. "Seto, why do you want to know so much about that island? And why in the world would you need to know its exact location!" Mokuba asks.

Kaiba doesn't say anything for a minute, but decides that he shouldn't keep secrets from his brother - especially after yesterday. "Pegasus called again this morning," Kaiba says. He's quick to continue when seeing the alarm on Mokuba's face. "We agreed to a duel at Duelist Kingdom. If I win, he'll quit bothering us. Don't worry. I'll find a way to beat him," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Seto, last time you two dueled, he defeated you!" Mokuba says.

"What!" Kaiba asks in surprise.

"Pegasus is the_ creator_ of Duel Monsters! Even though you were the World _Champion_, you still couldn't beat him at his own game. And now that you can't even remember how to play, it's almost impossible for you to win!"

"There must be _some_ way I can..." Kaiba thinks aloud.

"Well... There could be _one_ way... Remember when Yugi and I told you about Pegasus's Millennium Eye? You made a Duel Disk - a holographic simulator - that could keep Pegasus from reading your mind. It was the only way you could think of that would allow you to win against him. But you couldn't use it in the duel for some reason."

"It's like the duel arenas I saw at Kaiba Land, right? Those holograms are _amazing_..." Kaiba says.

"Well, the Duel Disks make _solid-vision_ holograms. They're much more realistic than the arenas. It's just that... The Duel Disks are meant for an expert mode of the game... Even if you use the Duel Disks, you'd have to get your memory back to be able to work them..."

"I'll figure _something_ out..." Kaiba promises his brother.

* * *

_'I don't even know all the _basics_ of Duel Monsters. - How can I expect to duel in _Expert_ Mode?'_ Kaiba thinks as his limo comes toward the high school. He sighs.

Kaiba arrives at the school a few minutes early. About half of the class is already there, including Yugi and Joey. When walking to his seat, he stops to talk to them.

"I've seen you two playing Duel Monsters, so you must know the rules. Teach me how to play," Kaiba tells them, not talking overly loud because he doesn't want the other kids to hear.

"O... kay..." Yugi says, not sure how he should respond to the command. "How about teaching you the basics during the lunch break?" Yugi suggests.

Time goes by quickly and the lunch period arrives. Fortunately, no one cares what Kaiba does and the other kids don't even look his way.

"Did you bring your deck?" Yugi asks. Kaiba shakes his head. "That's okay. You can share mine," Yugi says and gives Kaiba the top half of his deck. "It's beginning to get cloudy out, isn't it?..." Yugi says, commenting on the view he sees from the window as he shuffles. Kaiba doesn't say anything. "So... is there a reason you want me to teach you how to play?" Yugi asks.

"I have to duel Pegasus tomorrow... It's the only way I can make him believe I don't have amnesia..." Kaiba tells him in a hushed tone.

"Oh..." Yugi says in response. "You put the deck here," Yugi says after a minute, as he places his deck on the game mat. Kaiba follows suit. "Now we each draw five cards. I'll go first, so I draw one more," Yugi tells Kaiba. "I'll play this monster in attack and end my turn."

Kaiba draws a card. "Hmm... I have to play a monster with more attack points than yours, right?"

"Yeah. That's pretty much how the game works," Yugi replies.

"So, which number is the attack and which the defense?" Kaiba asks Yugi.

"The top number is the attack," Yugi responds. "You seem to know a little about the game already. Are you just now remembering it?"

"No. Someone tried explaining it to me over the weekend, but I can't recall most of what they said," Kaiba tells him. "Will this work?" Kaiba asks as he plays the Dark Magician in attack.

"Yep. If you attack my Feral Imp, I lose twelve hundred life points," Yugi tells him. "See, we each begin with two thousand life points. First to lose all their life points will lose the game."

"Okay, I attack your monster," Kaiba tells Yugi.

"Are you going to do anything else during your turn?" Yugi asks as he puts his monster in the graveyard.

"No. I end."

Yugi draws. "Since it's my turn now, I can summon another monster. And because the Dark Magician's attack is higher than the attack of any card in my hand, I have no choice but to play one of my monsters in defense mode. I'll also set a card face down on the field and end my turn."

(To Be Continued Next Chapter)


	14. The Feeder Band

**-Part Three-**

**Chapter Fourteen: The Feeder Band**

Yugi draws. "Since it's my turn now, I can summon another monster. And because the Dark Magician's attack is higher than the attack of any card in my hand, I have no choice but to play one of my monsters in defense mode. I'll also set a card face down on the field and end my turn."

"I'll attack your defense monster and end," Kaiba says after he draws a card.

"Not so fast, Kaiba. I played a trap card last turn." Yugi flips his card face up. "Spellbinding Circle activates. Now the Dark Magician's attack points are lowered by seven hundred and it can't attack," Yugi says.

"But it would _still_ have eighteen hundred points left. It's your turn, Yugi," Kaiba tells him.

"Now that your monster's weak, I can flip Curse of Dragon to attack - with two thousand attack points - and destroy it," Yugi says, changing his monster to attack and attacking. "Now it's your move."

"So that's the power of a trap card..." Kaiba muses as he draws. "I guess I'll play Beaver Warrior in defense, try my hand at the magic and traps, and end," Kaiba says, playing Beaver Warrior in face up defense and one card face down.

Yugi draws a card. "I'll attack Beaver Warrior with my dragon," Yugi tells Kaiba.

"It's _my_ turn to activate a trap," Kaiba says as he holds up his face down card to show Yugi. "It's Mirror Force."

"That was a good move, Kaiba. It destroys my monster instantly," Yugi tells him and puts Curse of Dragon in the graveyard.

"Okay, now it's my turn," Kaiba says as he draws. "Since you don't have any monsters or magic cards on your side of the field, I can switch Beaver Warrior to attack mode. I'll also play the Koumori Dragon in attack mode and end," Kaiba tells him.

"More is not always better, Kaiba. It's _true_ I didn't have any monsters or face down cards during your turn... But, you have to remember not to leave your monsters exposed," Yugi says. Kaiba widens his eyes, knowing Yugi must have something up his sleeve. "I'll play this magic card - Reborn the Monster - to revive the Dark Magician. This card allows me to bring back any monster in the graveyard - including my opponent's grave. And since Reborn the Monster doesn't count toward my one-monster-per-turn limit, I can also summon Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack. If I attack your Beaver Warrior with my Magician, you lose thirteen hundred life points. And if I attack your Koumori with Gaia, your life points drop to zero."

"I guess I'm not ready to go against Pegasus..." Kaiba says as he gathers up his cards to give back to Yugi.

"Actually, you're doing better then Joey did when he was first learning," Yugi tells him with a smile.

"Hey! I did just fine when I was learnin'!" Joey protests.

* * *

After school, as Kaiba begins walking down the hallway, Yugi runs to catch up with him.

"Kaiba, wait," Yugi says between breaths.

"What?" Kaiba says and stops, the expression on his face clearly showing annoyance. He needs to get back to the mansion and can't afford to lose time.

"You _do_ know that Pegasus is the inventor of Duel Monsters, right...? You tried dueling him in the past but couldn't win-"

"I know all of that, Yugi," Kaiba interrupts.

"Well, how are you planning to defeat him?" Yami asks calmly.

Kaiba looks toward Yami for a second in confusion before he answers, wondering what just happened to the boy standing beside him. "Mokuba told me about these things called Duel Disks. If I can use those disks and figure out this "expert mode" he mentioned, Pegasus might not be able to read my mind and I would have some chance of winning..." Kaiba tells him. Joey walks up to them.

"So you're really goin' afta Pegasus?" Joey asks in disbelief.

"Yeah. And I need to be going now, so goodbye," Kaiba says curtly.

"Hey! Aren'tcha goin' ta talk ta me any!" Joey demands.

"Not anymore than I have to. Since when do you care what I have to say, anyhow?" Kaiba asks.

"What? I care. Especially since you're goin' up against Pegasus! It was a real nice game last time," Joey says with fond memories. "I wonder if it'll turn out just as good _this_ time..." Joey wonders aloud.

"I lost," Kaiba tells him coldly.

"Is that any way ta talk ta me on your anniversary?" Joey asks him.

"Anniversary?" Kaiba asks, raising an eyebrow.

"It's been exactly a week since your accident," Joey explains. Kaiba begins to turn to leave when Yami hands him a folded piece of paper. Kaiba looks at it questioningly.

"I wrote down the rules of Expert Mode," Yami tells him. Kaiba takes the note. He squeezes it for a second in his fist while thinking about the duel that lies ahead.

"Thanks, Yugi," Kaiba says as he walks away.

_'Do you really think it will work?'_ Yugi asks, appearing beside Yami after Kaiba leaves.

_'I don't know, Yugi... It's _possible_ the Duel Disks can work. Neither of us truly knows how the Millennium Eye works. Maybe Pegasus can only read minds close range, or maybe he has to actually _see_ his opponent...'_ Yami replies. _'The way the Duel Disks were designed could be the key to this duel. I just hope Kaiba can talk Pegasus into using them this time...'_

It begins to thunder in the distance as Kaiba walks toward the awaiting limo and it starts raining just as he gets back to the mansion. Thankfully, his brother's waiting for him inside, by the front door. "Mokuba, where's those Duel Disks you mentioned this morning?" Kaiba asks him.

"I don't know... I'm not sure what you did with them after Duelist Kingdom," Mokuba says.

"You think they could be in that workroom on the second floor?" Kaiba asks his brother after a minute.

"Maybe..." Mokuba says. The brothers walk up the stairs and go to the room. The rain sprays against the large windows as they look in drawers and on countertops for the disks.

"Where would they be..." Kaiba says to himself, scanning the room with his eyes. The lightning outside flickers through the windows and about every five seconds a growl of thunder can be heard. Could he have taken them apart after the Duelist Kingdom tournament? Mokuba said that he invents things in here - what if he considered them a failure for some reason and used them for spare parts? As Kaiba considers that possibility, something in a corner of the room sparkles a brilliant red from the reflection of a bolt of lightning, and Kaiba walks over to see what it is.

"Mokuba, I think I found them," Kaiba says as he picks up the shiny plastic device.

"Yeah, that's them!" Mokuba says happily.

* * *

Kaiba walks out to the front yard wearing a black outfit and midnight blue jacket, having changed out of his school uniform. The back of his jacket blows wildly in the wind as he ignores the pouring rain and constant flashes of light.

"Mr. Kaiba, I don't think we should be flying in this weather," the pilot says over the sound of the storm and turning blades of the machine he's standing beside. "The wind is too strong and visibility is limited to a couple hundred feet."

_'I have more important things to do than worry about the weather,'_ Kaiba thinks. "Is the helicopter ready for takeoff or isn't it?" he growls.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba..." the pilot answers, relenting to his boss.

"Make sure we have enough gas stored to make it over the Pacific," Kaiba calls to him.

Mokuba runs out the front door toward his brother, wearing a yellow rain slicker. "Seto, you're leaving _now_!" Mokuba asks.

"It's the only way I can meet Pegasus's deadline," Kaiba tells him.

"But I'm not ready yet!" Mokuba complains.

"You're not going with me," Kaiba tells him. Mokuba makes a face and has a defiant look in his eye. _'I can't let Mokuba go... I know Pegasus did _something_ before and I can't let him get his hands on my brother again...'_ Kaiba thinks. "It's too dangerous. Go back inside," Kaiba orders the younger brother. He doesn't take his eyes off Mokuba until he sees the doors shut behind the younger brother. Kaiba notices that the rain has let up considerably while he was talking to Mokuba. He touches his pocket, making sure he has his deck on him. He carries a heavy waterproof case in his right hand as he enters the helicopter. Seconds later the helicopter begins lifting off the ground. Kaiba looks out the window to see Mokuba back in the front yard, standing between the two rows of tall blue spruces, which are bending uncontrollably in the wind from the lifting helicopter. As Mokuba waves, his long, wet, black hair whips wildly around his face in the strong wind. Kaiba waves back to his brother as the helicopter picks up speed and swerves away from the three-story mansion.

_'Here I come, Pegasus...'_ Kaiba thinks. The view from the window is phenomenal; he can see the whole city of Domino from their height, even though it's still raining slightly. He can see the pier on the edge of the city and the boats docked there, the tall buildings in the center - including one skyscraper with the letters KC printed on the side of it. He can also see the hospital, and the high school, too, if he looks close enough. The helicopter goes even farther up, until the buildings of the city are hardly visible. Now he can see the very curve of Japan, as though he was looking at a satellite photo. Lakes are distinctive on the brown earth and so are all the jagged edges of land reaching out into the ocean that you'd never imagine were there.

* * *

The view becomes redundant as they fly over the large ocean. Nothing but the cobalt blue of the Pacific Ocean can be seen from the window. It's not that it's an unappealing sight, with the sun shining on the water and causing it to sparkle, but it'll be the same thing for hours on end. In a couple hours, the sun will be setting, causing an even more beautiful sight; but for now, Kaiba can do some work. He gets the deck out of his pocket and adds the cards to it that he bought Sunday. He'll take this time to go over everything he can remember Yugi and the shop owner trying to teach him. He also takes out one of the Duel Disks so he can become more familiar with the machine. And he needs to memorize whatever Yugi wrote down in that note he has in his pocket.


	15. The Landfall

**Chapter Fifteen: The Landfall**

The pilot lands the helicopter in the courtyard. Kaiba steps out of the back seat of the helicopter and looks at the yellow brick castle in front of him. He begins walking down the cobblestone path in the middle of the courtyard, toward the doors. Hedges line the pathway, and beyond the hedges on both sides of the path, there's a line of blue spruces and some more bushes pruned to fit a pattern. A person can't tell on the ground, but when the helicopter was hovering above the castle getting ready to land, Kaiba could see that the bushes made the outline of two circles - an inner circle and outer circle - with the path cutting through the middle of them. Kaiba briefly looks to his left, where, beyond the wall of the courtyard, there is a small wing of the castle attached by stairs.

_'There's something about this place...'_ Kaiba thinks, "Place" meaning the castle. _'Something I don't want to remember...'_ After reaching the door, one of Pegasus's staff members greets him. The man has silver hair and a matching mustache. He's also wearing black sunglasses. Kaiba narrows his eyes, trying to think of where he's seen the man before. The man grins, which shows that he's missing an upper tooth.

"Pegasus asked me to lead you to the place which has been prepared for your duel," he says and gestures for Kaiba to follow him inside. Kaiba doesn't trust the man - there's a menacing vibe about him.

* * *

"Ah... You can't remember why this place seems familiar to you; can you, Kaiba-Boy? Don't worry... It will no longer matter after our duel..." Pegasus says as he watches Kaiba on the monitor.

* * *

The gray-haired man stops at the entrance to a large room.

"You are to duel Pegasus in this room," the man says. The actual _floor_ is far below, with only a catwalk spanning the length of the room at their current height. Kaiba looks at the man questioningly after examining the room at the end of the hall. He gives Kaiba another broad grin. "It's safe. Heh... I'm not going to push you over the edge or something..." he says, then turns and leaves Kaiba standing there. After a minute, Kaiba decides to walk across the narrow pathway. He stops after getting to the middle of the room. While waiting for whatever will happen next, he looks over the edge of the walk, wondering how long of a drop it is to the bottom.

"I have yet to have a person fall off," Pegasus says seriously. Kaiba jerks his head back up in surprise. The young, white-haired man is at the other end of the catwalk, having just stepped through the doors, and is walking toward the center of the walk. Again, something tugs at Kaiba's mind that he can't quite remember. Pegasus is dressed in a blue tuxedo with white outlines, and is wearing white dress shoes as well as a white dress shirt underneath the blue jacket.

"We're supposed to duel here? Where's the arena?" Kaiba asks.

Pegasus smirks, knowing that even that one simple line proves that Kaiba has lost his memories. "You'll see in time. But before we duel, we need to go over the stakes."

* * *

"Look! There's Seto's helicopter!" Mokuba calls to everyone in the backseat. He turns to the pilot. "Land here!" Mokuba orders and points at the ground several feet from the other helicopter. When they land, Mokuba takes off his headset and jumps the few feet between the front door of the helicopter and the ground. Téa comes out next, using the arm hold and step. Yugi, Joey, and Tristan follow. Unlike last time they were here, this time they don't have to walk up the many steps to the front door. Instead, they can just pass through the second set of doors at the other side of the courtyard.

"Can't you afford a larger helicopter than this?" Tristan demands as he stretches. Mokuba shrugs.

"Just be thankful it wasn't as cramped as it was _last_ time," Téa tells Tristan.

"Yeah... It's a good thing Bakura decided to stay behind," Yugi comments. "I forgot how rough the ride was before..."

"C'mon! My brother's already inside!" Mokuba says as he runs toward the large doors, waving for the others to follow.

When getting to the room where Pegasus holds the duels, they see that the arena is still at ground level, but Kaiba's nowhere in sight.

"Pegasus, I'm not going to duel you unless we use _these_." They hear someone say.

"Up there!" Téa says, pointing above their heads. They can barely see the silhouettes of Kaiba and Pegasus. Yami takes over for Yugi, being more interested in the play of the duel.

* * *

_'There's an up side to using these disks... Pegasus might be the master of Duel Monsters, but these disks can level out the playing field. - Both of us are new to this version of the game,'_ Kaiba thinks. Pegasus laughs at Kaiba's request. "I mean it. Unless you agree to duel using the Duel Disks, I'm walking back through those doors and leaving!" Kaiba informs Pegasus.

"Fine. - We'll use them," Pegasus says bitterly, a frown on his face. Unbeknownst to Kaiba, Pegasus actually _wants_ to use the disks. _'This may just be the advantage I need...'_ Pegasus thinks.

* * *

_'Pegasus gave in too quickly... Last time, he tried everything he could think of to get out of using Kaiba's disks,'_ Yami thinks, remembering how he used Mokuba. _'Did he give in this time because he doesn't think Kaiba can handle the Duel Disk?'_

"Let's go upstairs to watch the duel," Téa suggests.

"Good idea," Tristan says.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" the man with silver hair yells.

"Croquet!" Téa exclaims, saying the man's name in surprise.

* * *

"Now, as for those stakes..." Pegasus says. His straight, shoulder length hair covers one eye, but his showing brown eye narrows as he looks at Kaiba. "If _I_ win, you give me those Duel Disks and any documents that go with them - otherwise, I'll have recorded proof of your memory loss and will take over your company by force," Pegasus tells him, pointing up at a camera on the side of one of the walls. "I'm _sure_ there will be something you will say or do during the duration of the duel which will prove your inexperience at the very thing that has made you known as a famous gamer," Pegasus says. "If _you_ win, I'll leave you alone and no one will ever view this tape. Deal?" he asks.

"Deal."

"Then let the duel begin!" Pegasus says with a smile, all of a sudden switching to a happy tone of voice.

"Fine. Catch," Kaiba says and throws Pegasus a disk. "Slide the deck holder onto your arm and put your deck in the slot," Kaiba tells Pegasus as he does it himself. The holder beeps as he puts in his deck. "Two thousand life points will show on the screen at the top of the deck holder."

* * *

"There," Joey says after he slides a chair under the doorknob.

"Let me out! You can't do this to me!" Croquet frantically yells from inside the closet as he beats on the door.

"Now let's go watch the duel!" Tristan says.

"Right," Yami says and nods.

* * *

"Now we each draw five cards from our deck," Kaiba says and draws. Pegasus does as Kaiba instructs. "We're going to play in "Expert Mode" so we draw as many cards as needed to always have five cards and we can't draw a new card until a card is destroyed. Pick a monster to be your "main monster" which is played in the center of the disk in either attack or defense position. The other four cards are placed in the sub card slots around the disk," Kaiba says as he puts his cards in the disk. "Then, throw the disk," he says and throws the disk like a Frisbee to the floor in front of him. Pegasus follows almost instantly after. The spinning disks begin releasing sparkling fragments of light. A second later, Kaiba's disk forms solid images of four large vertical cards in front of his body and there's a card floating behind him as well, with a monster popping out of it. The same happens on Pegasus's side of the field.

"Look, the duel's starting!" Mokuba says.

Kaiba looks up. "Mokuba?" he says, startled. Pegasus looks up as well. Yugi and the others are standing at the balcony located another story up from the dueling field.

"How did _they_ get in here?" Pegasus exclaims.

"Mokuba, I thought I told you to stay home!" Kaiba calls up to his brother.

"No; you just said that I couldn't come with _you_," Mokuba calls back. "So I came with Yugi, instead," he says, happy with his loophole. "I just _had_ to be here to support you, Seto!..." he whines.

Kaiba sighs. Then, getting back to the duel, he examines the field. For a second Kaiba panics, wondering how he would know the attack and defense of Pegasus's monsters. During the practice duel with Yugi, all of the cards were right in front of him. During _this_ duel, the opponent stands several feet away. And you wouldn't be able to see the attack and defense of monsters, anyway, since the cards are only a blur on a spinning disk. But then he notices the floating card behind Pegasus's main monster. The card above Pegasus's head is on its side, which must mean that the monster is in defense mode. He can read the numbers printed on the card, which are 1200 and 2200. Pegasus's monster has twenty-two hundred defense points - _his_ monster, on the other hand, only has sixteen hundred attack points. But he wasn't planning on attacking Pegasus's _monster_, anyhow.


	16. The Downpour

**Chapter Sixteen: The Downpour**

_'The card behind Pegasus's monster is on its side! During Kaiba's and _my_ duel in Expert Mode, all of the main monster cards were vertical, even when the monsters were played in defense. I guess Kaiba modified the Duel Disk since that time...'_ Yami thinks as he looks at the field below him.

Kaiba looks at the card suspended above Pegasus's head as he thinks, _'Okay... My main monster is Ryu-Kishin Powered, with sixteen hundred attack points. Pegasus's monster appears to be called Illusionist Faceless Mage, with twenty-two hundred defense points.' _He turns his attention to the cards in his sub card stage. _'Negative Energy Generator, Negate, Grappler, and Gift of the Mystical Elf,'_ he thinks, reading the names printed on the top of the cards and scanning the descriptions written below the illustrations. _'I don't see anything that would really help.'_

"In Expert Mode, you can either attack the opponent's main monster, _or_ one of their sub cards. If the sub card is a magic or trap card, it's destroyed. If it's a monster, it's treated as though it's in attack mode. And I think I'll attack a sub card!" Kaiba says and points at one of Pegasus's reversed cards. Ryu-Kishin shoots a beam of energy at the card. When the smoke clears, the card is facing Kaiba.

"The card you attacked is Ryu-Ran," Pegasus announces. Kaiba widens his eyes when he sees that the monster has twenty-two hundred attack points. The hologram of Ryu-Kishin Powered shatters and the monster card flies out of the disk onto the floor a few inches away. Kaiba looks at the digital life point counter on his arm, which shows his life points drop to fourteen hundred.

"It's not enough to just memorize the rules, Kaiba. You don't have the _skill_ to defeat me," Pegasus tells the teen.

_'Did he look in my mind? Did he know I memorized the rules on the way here?'_ Kaiba wonders. _'The Duel Disks were supposed to keep him from that! What if they don't help?...'_

"My turn, now, Kaiba-Boy," Pegasus says with a smile. _'Heh, heh, heh, heh... You don't need to explain the rules to _me_, Kaiba. I have your duel with Yugi-Boy recorded on a security tape,'_ He thinks as he reels in the duel disk by the thin string connected to the deck holder he has strapped to his arm. _'Hmm... I think I'll change my main monster to Ryu-Ran and put my mage in my sub card stage. What other cards do I have... Gorgon's Eye, Trap Displacement, and Black Illusion Ritual... I might not be able to use any of these at the moment, but they could come in handy later.'_ He throws the Duel Disk back onto the floor and an orange dragon, still partway in the shell it hatched out of, appears above Pegasus's head. "Ryu-Ran, attack that card!" Pegasus calls and points to one of Kaiba's sub cards. A spiral of fire shoots out from Ryu-Ran's mouth and the image of Negative Energy Generator appears for a split second before shattering.

_'If he targeted my monster card, I would have lost another nine hundred life points,'_ Kaiba thinks. A drop of sweat runs down his face as he draws two cards and reels in the disk. _'Battle Ox and Shadow Spell,'_ he thinks as he looks at his new cards. _'Grappler has more defense points than Battle Ox, so I'll make him my main monster,_' Kaiba thinks as he looks at his two monster cards. He sets Grappler sideways in the middle of the disk and Shadow Spell in one of the surrounding slots. He throws the disk back onto the floor in front of him and Grappler appears above his head in defense mode.

"Before you end your turn, I'll activate this trap card," Pegasus says as the card rotates to face Kaiba, "Gorgon's Eye!"

"That's the same card Pegasus used on _me_ during the final of Duelist Kingdom!" Yami exclaims, as he and his friends are watching the duel from the balcony.

"I think I remember..." Téa says. "Doesn't it turn your monsters into statues?"

"My monster!" Kaiba says in surprise, below the others, "It's turning to stone!"

"Yeees," Pegasus says, smirking darkly. "My Gorgon's Eye is a permanent trap card which turns to stone every defense monster you throw onto the field. And when the stone monsters are destroyed, you lose an amount of life points equal to half of their defense points." Pegasus looks at the field. "Now, if your turn is over," Kaiba nods, "I'll attack your Grappler with my dragon!" Pegasus says and raises his hand for Ryu-Ran to attack. Kaiba's monster cracks under the pressure of the attack and crumbles before disappearing from the field. The life point counter on Kaiba's deck holder shows him at eight hundred points. "And, to keep you from destroying my trap card when I end my turn, I'll shuffle the cards," Pegasus says and motions for them to shuffle themselves. Pegasus's sub cards become a blur as they move back and forth. When they stop, the trap card is no longer face up.

Kaiba draws a card and retrieves his disk. _'Pegasus seems to know the rules better than _I_ do! How is that possible?'_ Kaiba thinks. He looks at the card he drew - Judge Man. He places it in attack mode on the main card stage before throwing the disk. _'Judge Man has twenty-two hundred attack points - same as Ryu-Ran - but I might have a way to change that...'_ Kaiba thinks. "I end my turn."

_'Pegasus already knows the rules of Expert Mode... Could it be from watching mine and Kaiba's duel?'_ Yami wonders.

"I see you're finally using your head, Kaiba. I congratulate you. Playing another defense monster would only cause your life points to drop even lower because of my trap card and you don't have any monsters in your hand with an attack power higher than my dragon. - So you did the only thing you could and played a monster of equal strength. Now when they battle each other, their attacks will cancel out," Pegasus tells him. "...I think I'll attack, even though it will only destroy both of our monsters. I can always put another monster in my main stage." Ryu-Ran shoots fire out of his mouth at Judge Man and Judge Man raises two large-headed medieval maces in attack as well. You can tell their attacks are equal - Judge Man holding back the spiral of flames and Ryu-Ran keeping Judge Man from reaching him with his steel weapons. After a second, they'll both shatter to pieces and disappear from the field, with their cards flinging from the duel disks simultaneously.

"Shadow Spell!" Kaiba calls. One of his sub cards turns around.

As chains begin to fly out from the picture on the card, Pegasus yells, "Counter-Trap! I activate Trap Displacement!"

"Wha...?" Kaiba says in surprise as the chains switch direction right before reaching Ryu-Ran - instead, turning back toward Judge Man, wrapping around him until he can't move.

"When my opponent activates a trap card, Trap Displacement can make the card affect them instead of me. Quite handy, wouldn't you say, Kaiba-Boy?"

"Err..." Kaiba utters in response. Pegasus smirks.

"Hmm... Since Shadow Spell lowers a monster's attack by seven hundred points, I believe my monster is now stronger than yours," Pegasus says in a happy tone. "Ryu-Ran, attack again!" he orders, the smile disappearing from his face. The hologram of Judge Man shatters and the monster card, as well as Shadow Spell, are spit out of Kaiba's Duel Disk. "I end my turn," Pegasus tells Kaiba. The other duel disk kicks out Trap Displacement as Pegasus announces the end of his turn.

"I don't know how Kaiba can get out of this... Pegasus hasn't lost _any_ life points, while Kaiba's only one attack from losing!" Tristan says.

"Well, I say good riddance ta that spoiled jerk," Joey replies.

"Hey! That's my brother you're talking about!" Mokuba exclaims.

"Sorry, Mokuba..." Joey says ashamedly. "But ya have ta admit... He isn't the _greatest_ person in the world." Mokuba glares at the blond.

Yami doesn't seem to notice the conversation going on around him, intently watching the duel below with his arms crossed. _'Pegasus hasn't even played _one_ toon monster the duration of the duel thus far. Toons are his signature strategy... It's like Kaiba not using his Blue-Eyes White Dragons... What is he up to?'_ Yami wonders, not taking his eyes off the field.

As Kaiba draws two new cards, he sees that he only has a hundred life points left. He looks at the cards he drew - Y-Dragon Head and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. _'It's that card... The legendary dragon,'_ Kaiba reels in the disk and makes the Blue-Eyes his main monster, seeing that it has three thousand attack points.

"Yay! Seto has a Blue-Eyes on the field, now!" Mokuba cheers happily when the Blue-Eyes appears on the field. Téa grins brightly and Yami gives a slight smile, happy that the tables could be turning. After looking up at Mokuba with a smile on his face, Kaiba calls, "Blue-Eyes, attack Pegasus's dragon!" The bluish white dragon roars and a large white blast that resembles lightning comes from its mouth as it attacks. The hologram of Ryu-Ran shatters and Pegasus loses eight hundred life points. Kaiba looks at his sub cards for a minute. _'Hmm... This trap card might help my life point situation,'_ Kaiba thinks, remembering that he only has a hundred left. He turns his focus back to Pegasus. "Your move."

_'I didn't have anything in my hand that could have blocked the attack...'_ Pegasus thinks as he draws. _'Ah, Dark-Eyes Illusionist and Minor Goblin Official,'_ he thinks as he looks at the two cards he just drew. He reels in his disk and makes Dark-Eyes Illusionist his main monster, in attack mode.

_'Oh no! Dark-Eyes Illusionist is on the field! - That must mean that Pegasus is planning on playing Relinquished! I wouldn't be surprised if he already has Black Illusion Ritual in his hand,'_ Yami thinks, remembering the monster from before.

"I'll activate my trap card, Gift of the Mystical Elf. It increases my life points by three hundred for every monster on the field. And since we both have one, I get six hundred extra life points," Kaiba says and watches his life points raise to seven hundred on his deck holder. For a second, Kaiba has déjà vu regarding his side of the field.

"That's still not enough to stop me, Kaiba," Pegasus tells him. "Your turn."

_'Why did he play his monster in attack without attacking mine?'_ Kaiba wonders. He looks at the card behind the illusionist to see what its attack power is. _'It has an attack power of _zero_? How can that be?'_ Kaiba wonders. He draws a card to replace the Mystical Elf and puts it in his sub card stage - a trap card with the title of Crush Card. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Kaiba says, beginning to laugh hysterically when realizing something. "Pegasus, I'm pretty sure that if I attack a weaker monster, the difference of our monsters' attack points will be subtracted from your life points. - And your monster doesn't have _any_ attack points! If I attack, you lose every one of your life points!"

"Why in the world would Pegasus play a monster without any attack or defense points?" Mokuba wonders aloud. "Heh... It doesn't matter. Seto'll teach Pegasus to toy with him! He'll attack and make Pegasus lose all his life points!" Mokuba says.

_'Hmm... Go ahead and attack it, then, Kaiba-Boy... But my Dark-Eyes Illusionist isn't as easy a target as you think,'_ Pegasus thinks, waiting for the attack.

"Nothing to say before I blast you away, Pegasus?" Kaiba asks, a constant smirk on his face. "Fine. Blue-Eyes, attack Pegasus's Illusionist and end this duel!"

**

* * *

**

**I had a Halloween contest last chapter, since it was close to Halloween. The contest was about what costume people would like to see Kaiba wear. I wrote a short fanfic about it, which can be seen by going to my account page and looking it up. The results of the contest are as follows:**

**Kaibaman: 3 votes**

**G (a mob boss): 1 vote**

**Captian Jack Sparrow: 1 vote**

**Joey: 1 vote**

**Tuxedo Mask: 1 vote**

**Priest: 1 vote (me) I'm the only one? Think about it! Him dressing up as a guy he's denying the existence of?**


	17. The Eye

**Chapter Seventeen: The Eye**

_'So far, all is going according to plan. Although my castle _did_ seem to have some effect on poor Kaiba-Boy here, our duel hasn't sparked any memories as far as I can tell. - It's because I'm not using the same strategy as last time. He can't remember anything pertaining to our duel because this duel is completely _different_ from our last! My little memory test showed that Kaiba _can_ remember past events, given enough stimulation, but I've guaranteed that he _won't_ remember how to duel. First I took out most of the toon monsters in my deck, since that was how I defeated Kaiba last time. Then I got him to use those Duel Disks of his, which he's only used a handful of times in the past. Kaiba-Boy's life points are almost to zero, since he can't remember how to play the game...'_ Pegasus thinks, a smirk on his face. _'This time I'm all business - no toying around.'_

"Go Blue-Eyes, attack Dark-Eyes Illusionist and end this duel!" Kaiba calls out.

"Dark-Eyes Magic!" Pegasus says in response. The large eye on the head of Pegasus's monster begins glowing.

The dragon readies for the attack, but stops. "Why isn't it attacking?" Kaiba asks.

"It's because of my Illusionist!" Pegasus tells him. Dark-Eyes Illusionist's head rotates as it works its magic.

"What? It's because of that Cyclops?" Kaiba asks in surprise.

"The Dark-Eyes Illusionist is an Effect Monster. It has an effect that makes up for the lack of attack and defense points," Pegasus says.

_'Effect Monster? What does that mean?'_ Kaiba wonders.

"When my monster is targeted for an attack, it has the ability to paralyze the attacking monster with its hypnotic gaze," Pegasus explains. "So your Blue-Eyes White Dragon is frozen in its tracks." Kaiba doesn't say anything. "Well, I guess it's the opportune time to activate _this_ - my Minor Goblin Official trap card!" Pegasus says. The card turns to face Kaiba. "When my opponent only has three eighths of their life points left, I can use this card. At the beginning of each one of your turns, my Goblin Official takes away one hundred and twenty-five of your life points. Hmm... I guess it's my turn now, since your monster can't attack. But... I don't think I'll do anything this turn. So it's your turn again!"

Pegasus's Minor Goblin Official card activates and a goblin jumps out to attack Kaiba. Kaiba raises his hand to protect himself from the attack, but the goblin's sword goes straight through his hand and toward his face. He can't feel anything, though, since it's only a hologram. When he opens his eyes, he sees Pegasus shuffling his sub cards. His heart beat beginning to return to normal, Kaiba looks at his deck holder to see that he has five hundred and seventy-five life points left.

_'Since Pegasus didn't destroy any of my cards, I can't draw a new card. And my Blue-Eyes can't attack... But maybe I can attack with a _different_ monster,'_ Kaiba thinks. He reels in his Duel Disk. "I'll make Battle Ox my new main monster," Kaiba says as the disk returns to the floor. Kaiba orders Battle Ox to attack, but it doesn't move.

"I told you, Kaiba. Dark-Eyes Illusionist paralyzes your monsters," Pegasus says. Kaiba looks at Pegasus's monster, which is using its hypnotic eye on Battle Ox. "Fine. I end my turn," Kaiba says, frustrated because he can't control his own monsters.

"I'll skip my turn. Back to you, Kaiba-Boy," Pegasus says pleasantly. Pegasus's trap card activates and the Goblin jumps out to attack Kaiba again, causing him to lose another hundred and twenty-five life points.

_'I've lost...'_ Kaiba thinks. _'What can I do? My monsters can't attack and my life points dwindle every turn without Pegasus even attacking me,'_ Kaiba thinks.

"No! Seto!" Mokuba calls out with tears in his eyes, seeing the despair on Kaiba's face. "Yugi, what can he do? There must be _some_ way he can get out of this!" the younger Kaiba demands.

"Hmm... Well, there could be _one_ way..." Yami answers. _'But I don't know if Kaiba can find it. If Kaiba loses... will Pegasus trap him in a Duel Monster card like he did last time?'_

_'Mokuba...'_ Kaiba thinks, looking toward the balcony. He notices Yami standing beside Mokuba, a serious look on his face. _'Yugi, is there a way out of this? How do I find it?'_ Kaiba wonders. Kaiba turns back to the duel. _'It's a never-ending cycle! I order a monster to attack Pegasus's Illusionist, the Illusionist stops the attack, Pegasus skips his turn, I lose a hundred and twenty-five life points, I order a monster to attack Pegasus's monster... _How do I break the sequence_?'_ Kaiba yells in his thoughts. _'Wait... This isn't like the average duel. What if I attack one of Pegasus's sub cards, instead? Would the Dark-Eyes Illusionist still stop my monster?'_ Kaiba looks at his sub cards. He has the Blue-Eyes, Y-Dragon Head, Negate, and the Crush Card in the sub card stage.

"You know, Kaiba, you could always surrender," Pegasus says. Kaiba looks up at him. "Or... Maybe you _don't_ know. All you have to do is put your hand over your deck..."

Kaiba considers it for a second, looking at his deck holder, before looking back up at Pegasus and yelling, "No! I'll duel until the end!"

Kaiba narrows his eyes. '_Whatever it is that Pegasus wants with the Duel Disks, I'm sure that Kaiba wouldn't want him to have it.'_ Kaiba retrieves his Duel Disk. _'I won't make the same mistake I made during the first turn. The Blue-Eyes is supposed to be one of the most powerful cards in the game and it should be able to beat any monster Pegasus has hidden in his sub cards,'_ Kaiba thinks, switching his main monster from Battle Ox back to his Blue-Eyes. "Now, Blue-Eyes, attack!" Kaiba says after the disk creates the Blue-Eyes's hologram.

"Haven't you learned yet? My Illusionist stops any monster that targets it!" Pegasus says, annoyed.

"But I'm not attacking the Dark-Eyes Illusionist - I'm attacking that sub card!" Kaiba says, pointing toward one of Pegasus's four sub cards. The Blue-Eyes lifts its head. A blue sphere forms in its mouth, and when the ball of lightning gets big enough, the dragon releases the energy and the bluish-white beam hits a card. As the smoke clears, Kaiba catches a glimpse of Gorgon's Eye before the card shatters and exits Pegasus's Duel Disk. _'Great...'_ Kaiba thinks sarcastically._ 'It's that card that keeps me from putting monsters in defense. I even forgot about it. After drawing a Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I have no reason to play defense monsters, anyhow. I wish I had hit that _other_ trap card of Pegasus's... But at least now I know that his monster can't stop attacks on _sub _cards.'_

"My move," Pegasus says while drawing a card. He smirks when seeing which card it is. "Heh, heh... I would like to _thank_ you for destroying my trap card, Kaiba... It allowed me to obtain _this_ card," Pegasus says and turns the card in his hand toward Kaiba, "Relinquished!"

"Relinquished? What's that?" Kaiba asks aloud.

"Even if you _did_ have your memory, Kaiba, you still wouldn't know about this monster. I didn't play it last we dueled," Pegasus tells him.

"It's just what I've feared! Pegasus is about to play his trump card!" Yami says.

"Trump card?" Mokuba asks.

"I don't know if Kaiba has a card in his deck that can defeat _Relinquished_..." Yami muses.

Pegasus reels in his disk and sets Relinquished in the main card stage, switching Dark-Eyes Illusionist to the sub card stage. He throws the disk back onto the catwalk. All that shows up are his four sub cards, though. - The holographic dueling system doesn't produce a hologram of Relinquished. "I have to activate Black Illusion Ritual before I can summon my monster, since it's a ritual summon monster," Pegasus explains as the ritual magic card turns to face Kaiba.

_'Ritual Monster?'_ Kaiba wonders.

"Now, I'll sacrifice both Dark-Eyes Illusionist and Illusionist Faceless Mage, so I can summon Relinquished!" Pegasus says. The two monster cards turn to face Kaiba as they disappear from the field. A hologram of the large monster finally appears. "During my turn, I can activate its special ability... Dark Hole," Pegasus says. Relinquished's single eye glows and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is sucked into a deep hole in the middle of the new illusion monster. The Blue-Eyes's card is flung from Kaiba's Duel Disk. "Your turn, Kaiba. Let's see how you deal with _this_ creature..."

The Goblin jumps out of Pegasus's trap card again to take away more of Kaiba's life points. Now he has three hundred and twenty-five life points left.

_'Relinquished _also_ has zero attack and defense points...'_ Kaiba thinks. He looks at the field. _'There's only one sub card on Pegasus's side of the field - it's the Minor Goblin Official. If I attack that, I can stop it from taking any more of my life points. But... that monster took my Blue-Eyes White Dragon. I should destroy it now, before it takes away any more of my cards,'_ Kaiba thinks. He draws a card to replace the lost Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba smiles when seeing that it's the second Blue-Eyes. _'Good... This card should be able to defeat Relinquished and drop Pegasus's life points to zero. ...Unless it has another special ability, but I have to take that chance,'_ Kaiba thinks. He retrieves the disk and puts his new Blue-Eyes in the main card stage before throwing the disk. "Blue-Eyes, attack Relinquished!" Kaiba orders.

"Sacrifice Shield!" Pegasus calls. Relinquished covers itself with its beetle-like shell. The first Blue-Eyes is now visible, merged with one side of Relinquished's shield. The trapped Blue-Eyes roars at being confined against its will. "Because of my monster's unique special ability, its captive monsters are treated as equip cards - meaning I can have more than one monster in my main stage at a time," Pegasus explains. It's too late to stop the attack and a beam of light from the Blue-Eyes on Kaiba's side of the field flies toward Relinquished. The trapped Blue-Eyes attacks, also. The attacks meet in the middle, one not being more powerful than the other, but eventually both dragons shatter and disappear from the field. In the end, Relinquished is the only monster still in play. _'Drat... If I had more than just the Minor Goblin Official in my sub card stage, I might have been able to stop Kaiba's attack,'_ Pegasus thinks. He draws three new cards. _'None of these cards can help... None of them are monster cards, so I can't change my main monster. I can't use another one of Kaiba's monsters to power up my Relinquished, either, since he doesn't have one on his side of the field... That leaves my monster wide open to an attack. The main purpose of Relinquished's ability is to take the stats of other monsters... Since I can't do that, Kaiba can destroy my illusionist his next turn...'_ Pegasus thinks as he places his new sub cards, switches Relinquished to defense mode, and throws the disk. "It's your turn, Kaiba," Pegasus announces. The Minor Goblin Official card takes more of Kaiba's life points, leaving him with two hundred.

Kaiba reels in his Duel Disk. _'I should be able to defeat Relinquished with any monster, now,'_ he thinks as he draws. _'Z-Metal Tank, huh? That should do it.'_ Kaiba puts Z-Metal Tank in his main card stage and throws the disk. It destroys Relinquished, just as they both thought. "I end my turn."

Pegasus draws The Illusory Gentleman, another one-eyed monster, at the beginning of his turn. _'Heh... With my new monster - combined with a magic card from my sub card stage - this will be the last turn of the duel.'_


	18. The Debris

**Chapter Eighteen: The Debris**

_'This duel will end within the next four turns. The person who will deal the last blow is still to be decided...'_ Yami thinks.

"Ready, Kaiba? It was stupid of you to leave such a weak monster unprotected on your side of the field... Especially one I can defeat so _easily_. But you can't help it if you don't remember the rules, can you? I play the Illusory Gentleman in the main card stage and throw the disk," Pegasus says as he does so. "Now I'll attack your tank. Since both of our monsters have fifteen hundred attack points, I'll have to power up the Illusory Gentleman somehow, or else I won't be able to take the rest of your life points. Activate magic card - Rush Recklessly!" he says and motions for his magic card to rotate to face Kaiba. "Rush Recklessly is a quick-play magic card that increases the attack of one of my monsters by seven hundred points during the turn it's activated." The Illusory Gentleman rushes toward Kaiba's Z-Metal Tank.

One of Kaiba's eyes begins to twitch. He covers his eye with his hand to try to make it stop. _'This seems familiar for some reason...'_ he thinks. Next thing he knows, he's standing on the roof of the left wing of the castle - the place he noticed when his helicopter first landed in the courtyard. Knowing he can't win, his eye twitches - like it did when he was standing in front of Pegasus. Or... is he _still_ in the duel with Pegasus...? Yugi's standing across from him, ordering a monster to attack. The monster's sword severs the head of a Blue-Eyes - or something with a head resembling one - and he loses five hundred life points. His eye stops twitching and he takes five steps back, which leaves him standing at the edge. If Yugi attacks again and wins the duel, he'll fall. Yugi doesn't give in and orders another attack.

_"Stop!" Yugi said after a second, having changed his mind._

_'I win,' Kaiba thought. "White Lightning!" he called out. The Blue-Eyes attacked Yugi's monster and Yugi's life points dropped to zero._

Kaiba snaps out of it and is back to the current duel. The Illusory Gentleman is halfway across the field now. An image from the ending of his duel with Yugi comes to his mind - a snapshot of the field. The monster on his side of the field seems to be a Blue-Eyes, but it looks like it's in a different form. It's hard to tell for sure, since most of its body is behind him. Three of his sub cards are turned away from him and only the one on his far right is facing him. _'Wait... The illustration on that card looks familiar...'_ Kaiba thinks. He looks at the cards currently in his sub card stage and finds the same card. _'Negate...'_ he reads._ 'What does it do?'_ Kaiba wonders. He reads the text written on the card.

"This is it..." Téa whispers, "it" meaning the end of the duel.

Kaiba looks up at Yami. "Pay attention to this, Yugi!" he calls. Yami looks toward Kaiba. "This is what I should have done during our last duel!" Kaiba tells him. _'I could have won the duel honorably instead of humiliating myself with that stunt I pulled...'_

Yami wonders what Kaiba's talking about.

"I activate Negate!" The trap card turns to face Pegasus. "Negate blocks the attack and ends your turn, Pegasus," Kaiba tells him.

_'Last time?'_ Yami wonders. He remembers a scene from that other duel. _'Of course! When I used the Eye of Truth card to see Kaiba's sub cards, he had Negate. He never played it... He must have had it at the end of the duel. Did he forget he had that card?'_

"Err..." Pegasus says in frustration. _'If I still had the Millennium Eye, I would have seen that coming!' _Pegasus thinks. _'I guess my mind-reading charade doesn't truly matter anymore, since the duel is coming to a close... Kaiba must know by now that I can't read his mind.'_ The Minor Goblin Official trap card activates and takes another hundred and twenty-five life points from Kaiba, leaving him with only seventy-five points left. Kaiba begins to draw a card to replace Negate.

"You _do_ know that it's impossible to win, right? After my turn, my Minor Goblin Official trap card will take your remaining life points. If you try for my trap card, it's a one-in-four chance of hitting the correct card. What if you hit a monster card, instead? And if you decide to attack my main monster instead, you can't make me lose enough life points to change your fate. Unless... The only possibility is if you draw the last Blue-Eyes White Dragon - and I seriously doubt you will," Pegasus says confidently. Kaiba tries to ignore him and draws.

_'X-Head Cannon...'_ Kaiba thinks, looking at the monster card. _'It doesn't have enough attack points to defeat Pegasus, like he said. But why does that name sound familiar?...'_ he wonders. He looks at his sub cards. _'Battle Ox, Crush Card, and Y-Dragon Head...'_ Kaiba suddenly figures it out. _'X-Head Cannon must be one of those effect monsters. What does it say on the card?'_ Kaiba wonders and begins reading the text written on it.

"Are you going to take your last turn or what?" Pegasus demands impatiently.

Kaiba looks up. "Yeah. I _am_ going to take my last turn," he tells Pegasus. He reels in the duel disk and adds X-Head Cannon to his sub cards before throwing the disk back to the floor. "My Z-Metal Tank has a special ability. I can merge X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank to form XYZ-Dragon Cannon!" Kaiba says. The two monster cards in his sub card stage rotate to face Pegasus and mist drifts from the two cards into the Z-Metal Tank on the field, merging the three monsters into one. "Now my new dragon has enough attack points to defeat the Illusory Gentleman and cause your life points to drop to zero!" Kaiba's dragon attacks Pegasus's monster. The Illusory Gentleman's hologram shatters and Pegasus's duel disk spits out the card. Then Kaiba's monster and both sets of sub cards vanish from the field as the holographic generators shut themselves off. Kaiba retrieves his disk.

_'There goes my last chance at getting my hands on those Duel Disks... Cecelia will never return to me... without the power to form solid-vision holograms,'_ Pegasus thinks sadly. "I'm a man of my word," Pegasus tells Kaiba. He snaps his fingers and a man dressed in a black suit walks down the catwalk toward them, carrying a video tape. Pegasus holds out a hand and the man gives him the tape. "Like I said, this tape will never be played," he says and pulls a long ribbon of metallic tape from the cassette. Pegasus thinks about the duel monster card he made with his late wife's image painted on it. _'I put a microchip in that card, same as all the other duel monster cards. That's how Kaiba's machines can detect what type of card is played and display the proper image. If I had won the duel and gained control of Kaiba's Duel Disks, I could have used them to make Cecelia seem to come to life all over again...' _Pegasus thinks. _'But... I wonder if she would really want me to do that. Maybe I really _should_ go on with my life and quit trying to bring her back... Her death was a tragedy. She died as a teenager, with her whole life still ahead of her. I think of her everyday and wonder what our lives would have been like if we were still together... Maybe all my attempts at bringing my beautiful wife back to life fail as a sign that I shouldn't tamper with the laws of nature. I'll remember the lesson this time and not try again.'_

As Kaiba finishes gathering up his cards from the floor and putting the Duel Disks back in the transparent case he brought them in, Mokuba runs down the catwalk and the brothers hug. Kaiba smiles as Mokuba and he go to meet the others so they can all leave the island. But just as they walk through the doors of the room, Croquet blocks their path, a crowbar in his hands.

"Pegasus might be satisfied, but I'm not done with you, yet. Since my boss didn't defeat you, I'm able to get my revenge against you _myself_!" Croquet says.

"I thought we locked you in a closet!" Mokuba says angrily.

"Don't you think it's possible to find something in a supply closet that can break down a door?" he asks. "Pegasus wants to be ready for anything, so we have quite a collection of tools in our closets..." he says with a smirk. He remembers how the closet door looked as he left the room - the wood splintered from the blows he made with the crowbar and the chair that was placed under the doorknob now on its side several feet from the door, its back cracked. "_You_ did this to me, Kaiba!" he yells, pointing at the gap in his teeth. "You degraded me and tormented me!" Croquet says. He runs toward Kaiba, ready to hit him over the head with the crowbar.

"Mokuba, get away!" Kaiba yells and pushes the younger brother to the floor to keep Croquet from hitting him. Kaiba ducks as Croquet swings the crowbar. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Kaiba says. Mokuba gets up and runs to a safe distance.

"Just because you have a memory problem doesn't mean it didn't occur!" Croquet yells. Kaiba dodges another swing, wide-eyed.

"But I don't even know what happened!" Kaiba pleads.

"Heh, heh... Not so strong _now_, are you? When you don't remember how to fight!" Croquet says and takes another swing at Kaiba. Kaiba steps back to keep Croquet from hitting him. They end up on the walkway in the adjoining room, Kaiba narrowly escaping Croquet's chaotic swipes.

"Please!... Put the crowbar down before someone gets hurt!" Kaiba begs, holding his hands out in front of him to show he doesn't want to fight. He begins to take a step back as Croquet tries hitting him again. Kaiba tries to take a quick glance behind him to see how close his foot is coming to the edge of the narrow walkway.

"It's too late for that! You're an unremorseful brat who only thinks of yourself and your company!"

"What?" Kaiba asks, surprised. He just misses Croquet's next attack.

"We kidnapped Mokuba because he had a key we needed in order for Pegasus to be able to take over Kaiba Corp., but you couldn't stand anyone even _thinking_ about taking your precious company from you!" Croquet says and swings again. "That's why you came to this island last time and then attacked me and took away my dignity!"

_'Does that involve the duel I supposedly had with Pegasus in the past? I thought I was in a Duel Monsters tournament he was holding...'_ Kaiba thinks. _'I can't believe Kaiba could be as bad as what this guy says... How could I have ever been that man?'_ he wonders. "I'm sorry for anything I've done to you in the past! Can't we both put all of this behind us?" Kaiba asks.

"No! I'm going to get the revenge I deserve!" Croquet demands and dashes toward Kaiba with the crowbar. Kaiba dodges as a reflex and almost falls over the edge of the walk, but regains his balance. Croquet isn't so lucky, though. Kaiba hears the clatter of the crowbar as it hits the tile floor below.

"Help! Please help me!" Croquet begs. Kaiba finds Croquet hanging on the edge of the walkway by his fingers.

"And what was that about regaining your dignity?" Kaiba asks, looking toward Croquet with narrowed eyes. Croquet gives a frightened look, wondering what Kaiba has on his mind. Kaiba smirks. "I can't leave you there," he says, bending over to give Croquet his hand.


	19. The Rainbow

**Chapter Nineteen: The Rainbow**

"Did either of you really expect Kaiba to win?" Tristan asks.

"Well, it sure seemed like Pegasus had the upper hand most 'a the duel," Joey comments.

"If he really has amnesia, then I guess that explains it..." Téa says. _'Of course... Kaiba didn't do much better the _first_ time they dueled...'_ The three of them are flying home in one of Kaiba's helicopters.

"What's up with that, anyway? Sometimes Kaiba seems completely clueless and other times it's like nothin' ever happened ta 'im!"

"You think he's _faking_, Joey?" Tristan asks, surprised.

"I'm just sayin' it's not impossible," Joey says and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Why would Kaiba make up something like having amnesia?" Téa asks, shocked.

"I donno. Maybe it's some kind'a sick scheme 'a his," Joey tells them as he turns to look out the window at the helicopter to their right, flying several hundred feet in front of them. _'I wonder how Yugi's gettin' along with Rich Boy...'_ he wonders.

* * *

Kaiba is looking out the window. The only thing in sight is the scarcely clouded sky above, the water below, and their sister helicopter following close behind them.

_"Y-you're really going to help me?" Croquet asked, surprised. He looked in Kaiba's eyes questioningly and then took the outstretched hand. After Kaiba pulled him up, he said, "I guess I was wrong about you..."_

"What are you thinking about, Seto?" Mokuba asks. He's sitting in the middle seat of the helicopter, between the two teenagers. Kaiba turns his head toward Mokuba, the younger brother having interrupted his daydreaming.

"I was just wondering about that man who attacked me..." Kaiba answers.

Mokuba frowns. "His name is Croquet. He had me locked up in a room while Pegasus was working out a plan to take over our company," he tells Kaiba, the way Mokuba saying it showing he still has hard feelings.

"Croquet _attacked_ you?" Yugi asks, his eyes wide.

"Yeah... After the duel with Pegasus, he started yelling about getting revenge. He said I was the person who knocked out one of his teeth."

"I didn't know Croquet was missing a tooth..." Yugi says. "He doesn't seem like the type to suddenly explode like that. He's always appeared pretty nonchalant to me..."

Kaiba turns his gaze back toward the window as he wonders about Croquet.

_"Yee..." Croquet squeaked. "St... Stop! Kemo... Put it down!" he yelled in a high-pitched voice. Sweat was pouring down his face as Kaiba held him up by the material of his black suit. One of the lenses of his sunglasses was broken and he was looking up at Kaiba with his showing eye wide. "Look at his eyes! He's serious!" Croquet begged his coworker. Kemo dropped what he was holding - both men afraid of what Kaiba might have done if Kemo hadn't. Kaiba let go of Croquet's jacket and the man roughly fell to the ground._

_"Carry my duralumin case to the guest room! You'll be my hostage until I see Pegasus!" Kaiba told Croquet._

_"A-all right..." Croquet stuttered. He stood and picked up the gray briefcase that was lying a foot away._

"Maybe the people who usually show the least amount of emotion are in truth the most emotional..." Kaiba tells Yugi without looking away from the window. Kaiba wonders what the memory he just had was about.

Mokuba looks at his brother's eyes. _'How true...'_ he thinks.

* * *

_'It must be terrible not being able to remember your life...' _Téa thinks as she stares out the window. _'If I couldn't remember Joey- or Yugi...'_ She trails off, not finishing the thought. _'How confused Kaiba must be. Without any memories, it's like he was just thrown into all of this. If, all of a sudden, _I _had to run Kaiba Corp. and then Pegasus demanded me to duel him even though I don't know all the rules... I'd be a wreck! Although I hate Kaiba for what he's done to all of us in the past, it's hard not wanting to help him through this._

_'But what if Joey's right and he's just toying with us and trying to make us feel guilty? That can't be true. - Even _Kaiba_ wouldn't stoop so low as to claim he has amnesia ...would he?'_ Téa violently shakes her head._ 'No. It couldn't have been an act the first time we saw him after the accident..._

_"You mean you're not Kaiba? Then who are you?" Yugi asked, surprised._

_"I don't know... I don't remember anything... I know I'm _supposed_ to be him, but I just can't picture myself being that guy based on what I know about him so far," Kaiba said while looking down at the floor._

_"So you have amnesia?" Téa asked._

_"Yeah... I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Will you keep it a secret?" Kaiba pleaded, looking up for an answer._

_'Kaiba looked so... _innocent_ when he asked if we would keep his amnesia a secret. And he was so trusting... It was as if he was just a little boy afraid he'd get in trouble if his parents found out. I hate to admit it, but if I didn't know the _real_ Kaiba and I didn't catch him being a perv Friday, I might have fallen in love with him.'_ Téa sighs. _'It's a good thing I know his true self. Once he gets his memories back, the old Seto Kaiba will return.'_

* * *

Kaiba looks toward the seat beside his to notice that his brother is now asleep. It's been a couple hours since he had the memory about Croquet, but he's still thinking about it.

"Yugi... Croquet told me that I came to that island before because Pegasus was trying to take over my company. He said that I couldn't bear to have someone even _think_ about taking my company from me and I let my anger out on him. That can't be true, can it?" Kaiba asks the boy sitting on the other side of Mokuba. Yugi doesn't say anything for several seconds, unsure of how he can answer. Yugi then closes his eyes for a minute or two and when he opens them, Yami's in his place.

"Kaiba, do you recall what you told me near the end of today's duel?"

"Yes...?" Kaiba says, wondering where Yugi's going with this.

"You remembered the duel you and I had using the Duel Disks, didn't you?" Yami asks.

"Part of it..."

"Do you know why we had that duel?"

"Not really."

"You challenged me in order to save your brother." Kaiba glances toward Mokuba. "Kaiba, you didn't come to Duelist Kingdom for your company - you came for Mokuba."

* * *

"A dam?" Kaiba says to himself when seeing the large cement dam several meters ahead of him. He notices that he's standing in a dried up riverbed. When contemplating over his surroundings, he hears something and looks toward the dam to find a kid at the base of the structure with a hammer, nailing a board across a crack in the dam where water is slowly leaking out. There's more boards on the ground beside the boy. The kid looks over his shoulder, noticing Kaiba.

"Please help me hold it back! I can't let it break through!" the boy tells Kaiba, looking up at him with pleading, bright blue eyes. He has a look of worry and fright on his face and Kaiba feels like helping the boy.

"You _can't_ hold it back," a hateful voice calls.

Kaiba looks up to see a teenager with short brown hair standing on one bank of the river. He has his arms crossed and there's a frown on his face. "The dam will break no matter what you do," he tells the boy bluntly. His long jacket ripples in a sudden gust of wind.

Kaiba's confused as he watches what's going on around him.

While looking toward the teenager above, the boy says with tears in his eyes, "No it won't! I'll keep that from happening!" He turns back to his work with tears running down his cheeks. "I won't let myself experience all of that!" Hastily, the boy begins to hammer another wooden board across the leak. When he drives the nail in, it causes the cement to crack. Kaiba watches as the crack noisily works its way up the wall of the dam. Water bursts from the crack and disintegrates the dam.

Kaiba's eyes snap open in surprise. He looks around him, seeing he's in the helicopter with Mokuba still asleep in the middle seat.

"Were you dreaming?" Yami asks.

"Yeah..." Kaiba answers him.

"What was the dream about?" Yami asks curiously.

"Nothing... It was just a strange dream..."

"The Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams could be interpreted," Yami tells Kaiba.

"Yugi, this is the twentieth century - not One Thousand B.C.!" Kaiba snaps at him. Kaiba turns toward the window. _'..._Could_ it have meant something?'_ he wonders.

* * *

"Isn't it beautiful?" Téa exclaims with her hands and face pressed against the window.

"Yeah... It's great, Téa..." Joey mumbles without even glancing toward his window, being too busy sorting through his Duel Monster cards.

"Can you see Japan yet?" Tristan asks longingly from the middle seat.

"Yeah! When will we get home, Téa?" Joey asks.

"Sorry, boys. We won't get back to Domino until tomorrow," Téa tells them mercilessly.

"Aww!..." They both say and slide down in their seats exhaustedly. An impish smirk appears on Téa's face after seeing their reaction.


	20. Brothers’ Tears

**-Part Four-**

**Chapter Twenty: Brothers' Tears**

_'A week and two days...'_ Kaiba thinks as he stands in front of the mansion. _'It's been a week and two days since I've gotten amnesia. - And this place still doesn't feel like home.'_ He begins walking toward the front door. Mokuba steps out of the helicopter and follows behind his brother, barely able to keep up. _'I'm starting to become accustomed to this life, but it's more like spending a week or two at a distant cousin's house instead of being at a place I should know like the back of my hand,'_ Kaiba thinks as he walks through the front doors, both being held open by the staff. Right after stepping inside, a girl walks up to him.

"Sir, there's been several messages left for you while you were away," She tells Kaiba, holding a small memo pad in one hand.

Kaiba looks down at her, trying to comprehend what she is telling him. Why would someone call him? But of course, there could be a number of reasons. He forgot about Kaiba's hectic lifestyle while he was focusing on the duel - Kaiba has a company that demands attention. "Well? Are you going to tell me the messages or just stand there?" Kaiba demands. _'That came out harsher then I intended...'_

"Of course, sir!" the girl answers quickly with wide eyes. "Well..." she flips to the beginning page of the memo pad, "the first message is from the city hospital. They said you had an appointment with them on-"

"What else?" Kaiba interrupts, not wanting to think about that right now.

"Th-there was a call about rescheduling a meeting dealing with a product demonstration..." the girl says while glancing at her notes, looking up afterward to see her boss's reaction before deciding if she should continue with the current message.

Kaiba turns his head. "I'll be in my room. Don't disturb me."

"But..."

"I need time to think." That is the end of the discussion and, holding onto the banister, Kaiba makes his way upstairs.

* * *

Kaiba sits at the edge of his bed. _'Why am I in such a bad mood today? I just defeated Pegasus - one of the things I've been worried about for several days now. So why aren't I happy?'_ Kaiba looks toward the ceiling for an answer. _'It's that dream, isn't it?'_ he asks the plaster above him. _'It gives me a feeling of dread, and I can't understand why. Now there's phone messages left for me, too. I hope Mokuba can take care of the phone calls, because I can't bear dealing with anything else at the moment.'_

Kaiba lies down with a sigh.

_Seto looked toward his mother, who was lying on the hospital bed. A steady "beep... beep... beep..." was sounding from a machine nearby._

_"Mommy... You're going to be okay, right?" Seto asked._

_"Yes... I'll be fine, Seto..." she said weakly and smiled toward her son. Seto didn't believe her, although the doctors thought she had a good chance. Something about the situation... maybe her reliance on the machines, or how pale she looked, possibly from seeing similar scenes on TV... made him feel as though she wasn't going to be getting better. But he needed to hear those words._

Kaiba sits up and shakes his head violently. He doesn't want to remember any bad times at this moment. He tries to think of something more pleasant with which he can occupy his mind. He wouldn't have to get up if he looks at Kaiba's cards... he still has the deck in his pocket. He glances through the cards in the deck. It doesn't take long to come to a Blue-Eyes. _'Three thousand attack points and twenty-five hundred defense... I guess it _is_ powerful. - I don't see any cards with more attack or defense in the deck,'_ he thinks while looking at the card.

_"No! That card's _priceless_! There's no _way_ I'd sell it to you!"_

_Kaiba feels himself smirk while looking the man in the eye. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" he says darkly. Having no control over what he says or does, he feels his knuckles pop under the pressure of his other hand as his eyes narrow. It gives him a strange sense of enjoyment to see fear appear in the man's eyes, but the man replies with a firm, "I'm sure."_

_Kaiba forcefully opens the front door. He walks out of the man's house with two bodyguards by his side and feels a frown on his face. From behind him, he hears the man call, "And don't come back or you'll have a lawsuit on your hands!" Kaiba has several ideas playing in his head on how he can get the card, but he has no idea where the thoughts came from or why he's thinking them._

"Ahh!" Kaiba yells in surprise when coming to the realization that he started another memory. The Duel Monster cards fall out of his hands and scatter on the floor. "How do I turn it off?" he demands of himself. He begins to calm down. _'That was new...'_ he thinks with wide eyes. _'It was as if it was happening to me presently, but Kaiba had complete control over everything I said or did. When I get my memories back, will it be that way? Will my current personality be trapped in his mind, unable to break free?'_ A bead of sweat runs down the side of his cheek.

* * *

"Seto, why did the hospital call? If you had an appointment, why didn't you tell me?" Mokuba asks his brother.

"Mokuba... I'm not really in the mood right now..." Kaiba mumbles, looking down at the desk in front of him while propping his head up with one hand.

"What do you mean you're not in the mood? Seto, answer me!" Mokuba demands, worried about his brother.

"It's nothing," Kaiba says, looking up at Mokuba. He sighs. "They scheduled some type of follow-up and I forgot about it." He sees Mokuba frown. "I'll call them back and reschedule, okay?"

"Seto... Even if you don't want to remember your past, the doctors need to make sure there isn't something more seriously wrong with you."

"_Wrong_ with me?" Kaiba asks, wanting Mokuba to explain.

"Yes. _Wrong_. It's not normal for a person to have no memory of their life, of their family, of their company - and not even _want_ to remember any of those things. That would be something _wrong_," Mokuba says bitterly, not being in the happiest mood, himself.

"So _now_ you're saying I'm abnormal?" Kaiba asks.

"_No_... I'm saying that you have a mental problem. _Amnesia_ is a mental problem, Seto."

"I am _not_ a mental problem!" Kaiba snaps, his eyes full of angry emotion.

"I never said you were!" Mokuba says, surprised. All the bitterness in his voice is gone. "I just said-"

"I _know_ what you said! You said _amnesia_ is a mental problem. I'm the _product_ of the amnesia! I'm not the same Seto Kaiba, I'm a _different_ version caused by some freak accident and you said that _my_ personality is an abnormality," Kaiba yells at Mokuba. For a second, Mokuba can see the anger and confusion in his brother's eyes as they begin to fill with tears. In the next instant, Kaiba abruptly stands. With the words, "I don't have to listen to this," he walks out the door of the study.

Guilt begins to pile on Mokuba's heart, realizing that what he said must have really upset his brother. _'Why does he think that way? Amnesia is a loss of memory - it doesn't create a new personality in a person! Why is he saying that he isn't the same "Seto Kaiba"? Of course he is! Just because he lost his memory doesn't mean he's not still the same person! It's not right that he doesn't want to remember that! That he doesn't want to remember his life! That he doesn't want to remember _me_ - his own brother! He should want to remember who he is!'_ Mokuba thinks, trying to justify his words to the elder Kaiba. A tear makes its way down one of Mokuba's cheeks. _'No... I know Seto just doesn't want to remember those hard years. I'd rather forget them myself... But I still don't know why he thinks he's someone else...'_ A past scene flashes through his head.

_"Mokuba..." Kaiba said._

_"No, Seto! I know you don't want any part of your past," Mokuba said and made a horizontal motion with his arm for emphasis, "and I can't blame you; but don't tell me what _my brother_ would or wouldn't do!"_

_"I'll always be your brother - no matter _what_ happens to me," Kaiba told him._

_"You don't believe that _yourself_, so don't expect _me_ to." Kaiba stood in stunned silence. "Don't pretend for me, Seto!" Mokuba said and ran past Kaiba with tears clouding his vision._

Mokuba gasps after remembering what he had said three days ago. _'I... I practically shouted to Seto that he wasn't my brother and not for him to pretend he was... No wonder he's confused... But I didn't mean it! I was just upset... Why didn't I realize what Seto was talking about a few minutes ago? I could have said something else; I could have reassured him that he really was himself... Why am I such a stupid little kid? When Seto was my age, he never would have hurt me like that! He would have done anything to make me feel better!'_ Mokuba trembles as tears run down his wet cheeks.

* * *

Kaiba slams his bedroom door shut. His caramel-colored hair gloomily hangs over his eyes. He wipes his tears on the back of his hand. _'I don't understand... Is my existence merely a mistake? What was it Mokuba told me over a week ago? - That someone at school bumped into me and knocked me out? I can't imagine how _that_ could have caused amnesia. This sounds so ridiculous, but I know what I'm _supposed_ to be. I'm supposed to be that cold-hearted C.E.O. who would do anything to get what he wants. And I'm not him. I don't seem to be anything at all like him. I'm some new personality that took over after the accident. I don't even _want_ to remember his life...'_ Kaiba sighs and flops on the bed dejectedly._ 'I want my own...'_

_Seto stared in awe at the rollercoaster above his head as it zoomed by. "Daddy, can I ride _that_ one?" he asked his father excitedly. The man looked up, studying the ride his son had chosen. After a second of thought, he smiled. Seto's eyes brightened._

_"Ah... Okay, I think you're old enough. You can meet up with your brother and me after you get off the ride. We'll be at the merry-go-round."_

_Two-year-old Mokuba smiled brightly. "Miracle-round!"_

Coming out of the memory, Kaiba stares up at the canopy of his bed. _'Maybe I'm wrong about all this... I mean, judging from some of the earlier memories, Kaiba doesn't seem so bad... Maybe I truly am him, after all. At least... it might be nice to have some more good memories to look back on...'_


	21. Relatives

**Chapter Twenty-One: Relatives**

Mokuba stands in the quiet hallway, staring at his brother's bedroom door. He takes a deep breath and knocks, breaking the silence. "Seto?" He asks. "Can I come-"

Kaiba opens the door, startling Mokuba. After a second, the younger brother steps into the room, uncertain as to how he should start the apology.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba... You were right." Mokuba can only stare at his brother, wondering how the teen could have come to that conclusion - it was him that was wrong, not his older brother. "I'll reschedule the appointment and reserve the first opening they have."

Mokuba sighs. "The doctor's appointment doesn't matter. Look - I'm the one at fault for our fight. I should have been more understanding. Seto, you're my brother and you'll _always_ be my brother. I told you otherwise on Sunday, but I was wrong. You're _not_ a totally different person, Seto, and I'm sorry I made you think you were." Mokuba looks away. "It's just that... we've been through so much together, and now... well... you've forgotten our bond..."

Kaiba's eyes widen in realization. That could explain Mokuba's sudden outburst Sunday. Mokuba didn't literally mean he wasn't Seto Kaiba, his brother meant that he didn't remember their childhood together and didn't understand their relationship. "You-You're right... I'm sorry, Mokuba... I'm sorry I've forgotten everything we've gone through together..." Kaiba tells his brother. Mokuba looks up. "I want to remember our childhood. Will you tell me what I've forgotten?" Kaiba asks.

Mokuba hesitates. He promised himself that he wouldn't make his brother re-live his past - not after what happened Saturday night after trying to jog his memory about Kaiba Land. But this time, Mokuba notices while looking in his brother's eyes, Kaiba actually _wants_ to remember - remember what they're been through.

_Show me what it's like  
__To be the last one standing  
__And teach me wrong from right  
__And I'll show you what I can be  
__Say it for me  
__Say it to me  
__And I won't leave this life behind me(1)  
__Say it if it's worth saving me_ - "Savin Me" by Nickelback

"Okay, Seto," Mokuba answers.

* * *

The brothers sit side by side on the bed. Mokuba has his head down. "Well... I've told you before that I never knew our mother, and I barely remember anything about our father... All I have are the stories you used to tell me when I was little. You told me about how kind our mother was, and how she could make everything okay..." Mokuba tells Seto, a smile appearing on his face. "She had the greatest bedtime stories, you said. You always thought she made the best brownies you've ever had, and said you wished I could have tasted one..." Mokuba pauses and looks up at Kaiba, trying to read his facial expressions. "You told me more about our father... You mentioned that Dad went out of his way to be more understanding after her death..."

_"Daddy..." Seto whispered, holding his pillow in one hand while using the other to wipe a tear from his eye._

_"What _now_, Seto? Can't you be a man for once and suck it up?" his father asked, annoyed._

_"I..." Seto said and hiccupped, "I miss Mommy..."_

_His father's eyes softened as he looked toward his son, himself depressed by her recent death. "Okay... You can get in bed with me - just this once." Seto crawled into the bed and his father put an arm around his son. Seto felt better now, with the added security, and fell asleep._

"You had to help take care of me after Mom died. You said I was such a handful that Dad couldn't do it alone," Mokuba says and smirks.

_There was the sound of a baby crying in the other room._

_"Seto, will you feed Mokuba his bottle?" their father said while grabbing his coat from the coat rack._

_"But I don't know how to-" Seto began._

_"I have to go!" the father exclaimed to the five-year-old. "Look - test the milk on your wrist. If it feels cold, microwave the bottle for about five seconds and test it again. Don't get it too hot. After the baby drinks about half of the milk, pat his back until he burps," his father said while putting his coat on and walking out the front door._

_"But Daddy..." Seto said as the door shut. He sighed and went to find his baby brother's bottle._

"I _do_ remember our father taking us to the local park. He always seemed a little sad when first arriving, but after seeing the two of us having fun together, he would always perk up..." Mokuba recalls.

"That's because our mother used to come with him and me all the time before you were born..." Kaiba says while looking away from Mokuba. "It always used to be her idea to go to the park, and she was always the happiest person there..."

Mokuba stares at Kaiba in surprise. How could his brother know that? Did his stories about their parents help Kaiba get his memories back? Kaiba looks toward Mokuba questioningly, wondering what he did. Mokuba doesn't see any indication that any other memories had returned and continues with, "Well... I guess that's pretty much all I can think of about our parents. A day I'll never forget is when you told me about the wreck... I was three at the time, and you were eight. We were home alone, watching TV, when someone came to the door. You answered it, I stayed in the other room. When you returned, I could tell by the look on your face that it wasn't good. You explained to me about our father... That he wasn't coming back, like how our mother never came back."

There were a few seconds of silence before Kaiba said, "I guess I should call the hospital and reschedule the appointment."

* * *

_'The soonest opening they had was tomorrow, about an hour after school ends,'_ Kaiba thinks while walking back to his bedroom. He opens the door to his room.

_"Hello?" Seto asked after opening the front door. Two people were standing outside, a man and a woman._

_"Are you Seto?" the woman asked with a smile, kneeling down to his height._

_"Yes..." Seto answered hesitantly, noticing her suspiciously nice behavior toward him._

_"We're here to help you and your brother... Your aunt and uncle have agreed to let you two live with them. Is that okay with you?" the woman asked._

_"I donno... I guess..." Seto replied._

_"You and your brother can pack a few of your things. When you're done, come outside and we'll drive you over to your new home. You can return for the rest, later."_

* * *

_"Seto, where are we going?" Mokuba asked his brother, who was sitting in the seat beside him._

_"We're going to our relatives' house. They're going to take care of us, since Mommy and Daddy can't anymore..." Seto answered._

_"Oh..." Mokuba said. Seto went back to looking out the car window, nervous about what was happening. Seto noticed a house up ahead where two people were standing at the edge of the driveway. The car slowed down and came to a stop by that house. Seto and Mokuba got out of the car, Seto carrying a duffel bag. His aunt and uncle didn't look familiar to him, since he was too young to remember the last time they had visited. The brothers walked into the house with their relatives. The aunt and uncle showed the two to a small room and told them where they could put their things._

_"We bought these bunk beds just for you two," the uncle told them. "You _do_ realize that we could have used that money for something else, right?"_

* * *

_Seto looked around the house as Mokuba watched television. There were various knickknacks all over the house. Seto started to pick up a small porcelain figure, when his aunt saw him._

_"_Don't_ touch anything!" she yelled. Seto moved his hand away. "Those are breakable, you little brat..." she mumbled before leaving the room. 'I wasn't going to break it,' Seto thought angrily. He went to watch television with his brother._

_"You two get in here if you want dinner!" Their uncle called. The brothers entered the dining room. Seto thought it felt strange to eat in a dining room instead of in the kitchen at a small table like he always used to with his father and brother. The chair he was sitting in was different than what he was used to, also. While in the chair, he couldn't feel the floor under his feet, since the chair was too high. His aunt brought out the food. There were several things that she brought out, even though it wasn't a holiday._

_"But... It's macaroni day..." Seto said sadly._

_"Macaroni day?" his uncle asked, raising an eyebrow._

_"Daddy always makes macaroni this day of the week..." Seto explained._

_His uncle laughed. "Your aunt is too good a cook to make something like _Macaroni_, Seto. While you're with us, you'll get some _good_ food. It's a pity your mother died when she did... Maybe if she didn't, you two wouldn't be so malnourished."_

_"We're _not_ malnourished," Seto told him._

_"You don't even know what that word means. Don't talk at the dinner table, young man," their aunt said._

* * *

_Seto climbed up the ladder of the bunk bed, upset about the early bedtime his relatives gave him. He now wished that he had brought his pillow with him. _Their_ pillow felt... different. He also felt as though he were laying on a board, his old bed being so much softer. He eventually drifted off to sleep, but it was a restless one. First he dreamed that he was in the car with his father when the wreck occurred. He cried as he screamed, "Daddy!" Then, his mother and father were holding hands while looking toward him and Mokuba. They turned away from him and his brother, though, and began walking away. "Noo! Come back!" Seto called as his parents walked away, into the darkness._

_Wake me up  
__Wake me up inside  
__I can't wake up  
__Wake me up inside  
__Save me  
__Call my name and save me from the dark - _"Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence

_"Seto? Seto...? _Seto_!" Seto woke with a start. He took a few deep breaths, then looked over the edge of his bed. "When will Daddy come back?" Mokuba innocently asked from the lower bunk._

_"Dad's where Mom is now, Mokuba..." Seto told his brother. Mokuba looked toward Seto confusedly. "He's not coming back," he explained to the naïve toddler._

_"Oh... I forgot..." Mokuba answered._

**

* * *

**

**(1) ****The true lyrics for _"Savin Me" _are_ "_And I'll leave this life behind me", but they didn't match right in the story...**


	22. For Richer or Poorer

**Chapter Twenty-Two: For Richer or Poorer**

_Seto looked toward the building in front of his brother and him. - The orphanage where their aunt and uncle just dropped them off. The sun was shining brightly that day, not a cloud in the sky. 'You were wrong, Mom...' Seto thought, recalling a memory from years ago. 'Not everything turns out okay. If there _is_ such a thing as fate or destiny, they sure hate me. Since no one else is looking out for us, I have to be strong for my little brother... I have to let us have a good life... no matter what.'_

Kaiba wakes to notice the sunlight in his eyes, shining in from one of the large windows by his bed. He widens his eyes after a few seconds of squinting. _'I'm late!'_ he thinks, knowing the angle of the sun coming in through the window isn't right. He looks at the digital clock by the bed and mentally swears. He hurries to put on the school uniform and then rushes downstairs. Mokuba's waiting for him at the foot of the staircase.

"Seto, we're late," Mokuba tells his brother.

"Don't you think I know that?" Kaiba demands while tucking his white shirt into the pants and zipping up the school jacket. They get in the awaiting limo and take off for school.

"Hey, Seto...? Have you..." Mokuba begins to ask.

"Yes. I've remembered some things after we talked yesterday. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah..." Mokuba says. "What did you remember?..." he asks hesitantly, hoping it doesn't involve Gozaburo.

"I remembered what happened after our father died. We went to live with some relatives, and the last thing I remember is being left at an orphanage... How did we end up _here_? We were orphans without any money..." Kaiba wonders. Mokuba doesn't answer. Kaiba looks toward Mokuba, who's looking down at the floor of the limo.

_Mokuba's in the same position, only now he's younger and sitting on a swing. It's the park their parents used to take them to. The park's empty now, unlike most of the times the brothers were there in the past._

_"Hey, Mokuba," Seto said._

_"Huh?" Mokuba asked and looked up. "Hey, Seto. How'dja know I was out here?"_

_"Lucky guess," Seto said. 'It was the first place I thought of, myself, after arriving at the orphanage today... So many memories... I would have let my brother have more time on his own to sort things out, but it's almost dark out...' he thought. "Look, Kiddo, cheer up. We gotta make the most of all this," he said and gave Mokuba's head a pat. "C'mon, Mokuba, let's head back."_

_They walked along the side of the highway, heading back toward the orphanage. The sun was setting and there was a nice sunset, but neither noticed._

_"Okay, spill it. What's on your mind?"_

_Mokuba uses a fist to wipe away his tears. "I miss Dad... I wish that he were here with us right now. It's not fair that everyone left us here all alone..." Mokuba said. Seto put his hand on Mokuba's shoulder._

_"C'mon, no crying. Tears aren't gonna help us now," Seto said, his eyes becoming emotionless while staring ahead._

"Mr. Kaiba...?" the driver asks. Kaiba snaps out of it and looks up. "I said we're at Domino High."

"Oh... Right," Kaiba says and gets out of the limo.

While walking down the hall toward class, there's the usual cold stares and name calling. _'What _is_ it with these kids?'_ he wonders. He sits down at his desk and waits for class to begin. He glances up at the clock on the wall. Apparently, they made up the lost time, since there are still a few minutes before class starts.

"Hey, Kaiba, did you try dressing yourself today?" some boy calls. Kaiba then notices that part of his shirt isn't tucked in and quickly pushes it into his pants. "You should leave it to your maids... You're _not_ very good at it." Kaiba glares at the boy as he and his friends laugh.

Yugi watches the scene but doesn't have the nerve to say anything. _'Poor Kaiba... Without his memory, I wonder if he can _stand_ this every school day... Kids pick on him more than _me_, anymore...'_

_'When you defeated Kaiba, it sure put those kids in their place, didn't it?'_ Yami tells the short sixteen-year-old with a smirk.

_'Yeah... But, what can _Kaiba_ do?'_ Yugi wonders.

Kaiba snaps. He slams his hands down on the desk and faces the group of boys. "Okay, I've had enough of this! Why in the _world_ do you hate me so much?" he demands.

"Why do you _think_, rich-boy?" the kid from before says. "You always got everything you ever wanted! I'd swear you were born with a hundred dollar bill in your mouth! You're Gozaburo Kaiba's _son_! - The richest man in Domino until he died and you inherited everything! You have all that wealth, you have every rare Duel Monsters card out there, and you're a big _jerk_! You think you're so cool, with your company and your Duel Monsters Championships, but it's all 'cause of your birthright! You _probably_ even bribe the teachers to give you A's! So quit going around acting like you're so much better than we are, because you're not! You're just not!" the kid yells.

Kaiba doesn't know what to say. _'Is he right? Is Kaiba just some stuck-up jerk who thinks he's cool, just because of his inheritance? But... I thought both of our parents died and we were left at an orphanage without a cent...' _Kaiba thinks. He smirks. The kid looks at Kaiba with wide eyes, wondering what Kaiba's smirking about. Kaiba then laughs. "You don't know how _wrong_ you are... It wasn't my _birthright_ that made me what I am. - It was hard work and determination! You think you have it so bad... but I was an orphan after my father died - when I was _eight_ years old! My relatives took all of my inheritance and left my brother and me at an orphanage. So _don't_ say how much better _I_ have it than you."

The kids turn pale after that, shocked at what they just heard. Right afterward, the teacher walks into the classroom, right on time.

* * *

Yugi walks over to Kaiba's desk during the lunch break. "Kaiba... about what you said this morning... does that mean you got your memory back?"

"I remember _some_ things, Yugi... The first few years of my life, to be more specific," Kaiba tells the boy without looking at him.

"Oh... Well, I guess that means you'll get your memory back soon, huh?" Yugi asks.

"I guess..." Kaiba shrugs.

"Um... By the way, that day when we met at Kaiba Land-"

Kaiba doesn't hear the rest of Yugi's sentence.

_Seto and his brother were playing in the sandbox at the park. Seto had built an elaborate miniature of an amusement park in the sand. "It's an Amusement park, Mokuba, and someday it'll be real!" he told his brother excitedly. "You and I are gonna open up a whole _bunch_ of amusement parks all around the world for children _everywhere_ to enjoy - even if they're poor like we are now!"_

"Kaiba...?" Yugi asks. Kaiba only gives a blank stare.

"Kaiba Land..." Kaiba whispers and shakes his head. He notices Yugi staring at him. "What were you saying?"

"I was saying that I'm not sure if Pegasus found out about you having amnesia by the Millennium Eye or not... I just have a feeling that there was more to it than that..." Yugi tells Kaiba.

"Really? Maybe we could team up sometime and figure out how he really did find out, then..." Kaiba says.

"Maybe we can tomorrow... If it's okay with you."

"It's fine with me. Let's talk after school tomorrow," Kaiba tells Yugi. Yugi nods in agreement.

"Hmm..." Yugi gives Kaiba a suspicious look. "You remembered something a minute ago, didn't you?" he asks.

"Yeah... I guess I did," Kaiba replies. He notices that Yugi expects to know what. "When Mokuba took me to Kaiba Land Saturday, he wanted me to remember something, but I couldn't figure out what... But now, I think maybe I know. It was a dream of mine when I was younger... to build Kaiba Lands all over the globe..."

_'Could Kaiba's amnesia be an aftereffect of Death-T...?'_ Yugi wonders, remembering what Mokuba had told him about Kaiba's true dream being to build Kaiba Lands, and also recalling what happened after that fateful duel between him and Kaiba.

_(flash) "Mokuba... Your brother's broken 'heart' will have to be put together once again. He is in darkness, slowly picking up the pieces of his 'heart'..." Yami had said._

_(flash) "Kaiba! You... You're just the same as before! Haven't you changed at _all_...?" Yugi asked as Kaiba was walking away from the duel he had with Joey that night at Duelist Kingdom, being headed for Pegasus's castle._

_"Yugi... Do you expect me to forget about the past, grin like an idiot, and join forces with you? Mheh, heh... Don't make me laugh."_

"I wonder if the Kaiba Land here in Domino is the only one built so far, or if Kaiba already has them around the world... Do _you_ know, Yugi?" Kaiba asks, grinning from the thought of Kaiba's dream being to help children. - Maybe the guy's good, after all.

"Uhh..." Yugi says, startled by the inverse similarity between Kaiba's statement from the past and what's happening in the present.

* * *

_'Yami, do you think it could be true? That Kaiba having amnesia has something to do with his loss at Death-T?'_ Yugi asks.

_'It's possible... I don't believe that was what _triggered_ the amnesia, but it could be that the accident triggered a rebirth of his struggle from after death-T._

_'Kaiba seems to be fighting within himself... Sometimes he's like the Kaiba we know, and other times he acts as though he's someone else... However, he's acting more like his old self with every passing day...'_

_'Does that mean he's going to be his old self after he retrieves his memories?'_ Yugi asks sadly, wanting the new Kaiba to stay.

_'I don't know, Yugi...'_


	23. Don't Forget

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Don't Forget**

_"See, Mokuba? This piece moves in this direction..." Seto said, showing Mokuba how to move the Knight._

_"This is fun, Seto!" Mokuba said with a smile. "We can play Chess every day, can't we?"_

_"Sure. If you want," Seto replied with a shrug._

Kaiba gives Yugi a wave while walking out the doors of the school. He's been in a good mood today, having mostly good memories since this morning. When he sees his limo waiting outside the school for him, he has another flashback.

_From the window of the orphanage, Seto saw a black limo pull up. Seto opened the door and him and his brother walked out of the building to see what was happening. A man in a suit stepped out of the car. Seto had seen the man before - on TV. His name was Gozaburo Kaiba, the world Chess champion._

_"That guy is our ticket out of here, Mokuba," Seto said._

_"But I thought you liked it here... Besides, how are you going to make him choose _us_?" Mokuba asked._

_"I'll make sure he takes us," Seto said determinedly._

_"Wha! How?" Mokuba asked._

_"Just follow me and do what I say, Bro," Seto said._

_"Fine," Mokuba said with a nod._

_'Okay, Gozaburo. It's time to match wits with me... and lose at your own game,' Seto thought._

_Seto ran over to Gozaburo. "Good afternoon, Mr. Kaiba."_

_"Hmm?" Mr. Kaiba said and looked down at the ten-year-old. "Yeah, I suppose. If you'll excuse me..."_

_"I've got a challenge for you, and I know you never pass one up," Seto said to the man._

_"Hm... Yes, go on," Gozaburo said, beginning to get interested._

_"Here's what I propose: one game of Chess, me against you. If I win, you adopt my brother and me today, no questions asked."_

Kaiba looks out the window of the limousine. _'So _that's_ how we got out of the orphanage...'_ Kaiba thinks. As the limo nears the mansion, for a second, Kaiba sees a different house, instead of his. It's an even _bigger_ mansion, one that seems domineering and menacing.

_"We're home, boys!" Gozaburo's voice says._

"What?" Kaiba demands, his heart beating rapidly.

"I... I said, 'we're home, Mr. Kaiba'... sir..." The driver says, looking back at his boss worriedly.

"Oh..." Kaiba says. He steps out of the limo when the driver opens the door for him, and he walks inside the house. Once inside, he hears a nearby phone ringing and picks it up.

"Kaiba," he says, answering.

"Mr. Kaiba, I called Tuesday about the missed product demonstration you were to give, leaving a message for you to call back. It is now Thursday, and the company has deadlines to meet. Back on that Monday, the rest of the staff and I decided to give you extra time for rescheduling, because of the circumstances, but we're over two weeks behind schedule, sir... You didn't _forget_ about the meeting, did you?"

Kaiba's heart skips a beat. The words "forget" and "remember" still make him nervous. "No! I didn't forget! Reschedule the meeting and I'll be there."

"Are you free tomorrow afternoon? Perhaps five o'clock?" the man over the phone asks, ignoring his boss's edginess.

"Yes. That's fine," Kaiba answers and hangs up the phone.

Mokuba walks into the room. "Seto, who was that?" he asks.

"Someone from Kaiba Corp... It was something about a missed product demonstration. Apparently, I have to give one tomorrow, after school," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Product demonstration? Product demonstration for what?" Mokuba asks.

"I have no idea..."

"Sirs, I believe it's time for elder Mr. Kaiba's hospital appointment," one of the mansion's staff says, bowing in apology for the interruption.

_'I completely forgot about that... And from the look on Mokuba's face, he had, too,'_ Kaiba thinks.

* * *

"Mr. Kaiba... If your memories haven't returned yet, then we might want to search for an alternate cause for the amnesia. One different from physical trauma... Perhaps an emotional explanation would better fit... After all, your tests show no damage to any of your brain structures."

"What do you mean...?" Kaiba asks.

"...Amnesia is a very complicated situation. Some people only forget certain parts of their lives; others - like yourself - may forget everything. The type of amnesia you have is extremely rare... As you see, you have retained semantic memories, such as talking. - Factual memories, for you, haven't been affected. You know what year it is; you can probably type just as fast as before; you remember basic skills... Your episodic memories, however, are a different story. Every personal memory you have seems to have been hidden, making you somewhat of a blank slate. It's possible this could have been because of how you had hit your head that Monday, but it's also possible that it happened because of something emotionally disturbing..." the man tells Kaiba. Kaiba looks back at him confusedly. "Er... If there's something in your past that you don't _want_ to remember, then your mind can keep you from recalling it to consciousness for an indefinite period of time. I can refer you to a neuropsychiatrist, if this is the case."

_'Wait... If what Yugi said about Pegasus not using his eye to find out about my condition is true... And neither Yugi, nor anyone in his group had told... Then, I wonder if the hospital could have a leak...'_ Kaiba wonders. "No. I don't think that will be necessary. I _have_ been remembering things. In fact... I guess I remember pretty much everything except for the accident," Kaiba tells the man. _'If there _is_ someone in the hospital who broke the doctor-patient confidentiality rule and told Pegasus, then let them _now_ tell him that I remember everything.'_

"Oh... Well, in that case, I guess you're free to go. It's normal for amnesiacs to never recall the incident which caused their memory loss, so don't worry about that."

_'Bingo. Am I smart or what?'_ Kaiba thinks with a smirk.

* * *

"Seto, we need to figure out what that meeting is about..." Mokuba says when they're back at the house.

"How should _I_ know?" Kaiba exclaims.

"Because _you're_ the one who was talking to the guy on the phone about it!" Mokuba tells his brother in frustration. Kaiba tries to think back to what was said over the phone earlier.

"Wait... He said he left a message Tuesday, the day we were in America," Kaiba recalls.

Mokuba's eyes widen. "How could I not have caught that? I'm sorry, Seto. I must have been too caught up with the hospital appointment to look at the other messages..." Mokuba goes to find out what the message said and comes back to tell his brother. "All he said was for you to call back and arrange a make-up appointment, saying he was sorry for what happened to you the day of the original meeting," he says to Kaiba.

"So, does that mean that the meeting was originally scheduled for the day I hit my head and got amnesia?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah... I guess you're right..." Mokuba says, making the connection. "The briefcase..." Mokuba whispers in realization.

"Huh?" Kaiba asks, unsure of what Mokuba said.

"You brought home your silver briefcase from school last Thursday!" Mokuba practically shouts, his eyes wide. "That was the first day you went to school after the accident! That means that you had the briefcase that Monday at school!"

"So...?" Kaiba asks, trying to unstop his ears from the yelling.

"Don't you see? You brought it to school for _some_ reason - I just couldn't figure out _what_! If you had a meeting after school that day, then it must have had something to do with the meeting!"

"Oh! I get it... But... I think we should go somewhere more private to talk about this... Oh, let's say, a sound-proof room or something...?" Kaiba says, hinting for Mokuba to turn down the volume.

"Huh?" Mokuba asks, a puzzled look on his face.

After entering Kaiba's bedroom, Mokuba says, "I guess all we need to do is find the briefcase... Where is it?"

"Well..." Kaiba says, trying to remember.

* * *

_'I can't believe I forgot where I put it last...'_ Kaiba thinks while laying awake in the dark. He sighs, knowing he should get to sleep, but he just can't seem to do it. Not with an important meeting tomorrow - one that could expose him as the fraud he is. _'The last thing I remember about the briefcase is looking inside it, and then exploring the mansion afterward... I can't figure out where I left it, though. I guess that machine is what the demonstration is for, but I have no idea what that thing is or what it does...'_

* * *

_'I _will_ defeat you, Zork. Even if it takes millennia to do so!'_

Yami wakes up suddenly, breathing heavily.

_'What is it, Yami?'_ Yugi asks, himself waking up. He rubs his eyes as he yawns.

Yami begins to relax. _'I don't know... I had a dream; however, it was too jumbled for me to make out. But I get the feeling I'm here to accomplish something of great importance... If only I could remember _what_...'_

**

* * *

**

**As you probably know, a lot of the memories in this fanfic are from the show and manga, but sometimes with slight changes. The memory about Gozaburo coming to the orphanage is quite a bit different from the anime, since I'm not going by the Noah route and instead just saying he came for an heir.**

**Oh, and, I'm not going to mention that thing with Yami again. Maybe I should try making it a little clearer...**


	24. Gozaburo the Tyrant

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Gozaburo the Tyrant**

_'Mheh, heh... Something you can feel but not touch,' Kaiba thought with a smirk as he took one more glance around the room, then turned off the light and closed the door. 'I'm almost ready for Monday...'_

_'Monday? I missed a product demonstration the Monday after last. I can't find the briefcase,'_ Kaiba thinks while in bed. His eyes snap open. _'The briefcase.'_ He hurries to get dressed and then goes downstairs. Standing by the front door, he thinks back to when he first brought the briefcase home. _'I remember putting it in this chair several days ago, and I had to go to Kaiba Corp. before I could do anything else with it. I noticed it the next day and looked inside to see some Duel Monster cards and some type of machine. I went to explore some rooms after that, but I don't think I brought the briefcase with me... I don't remember seeing it after that. Where could it have gone...? I brought those duel disks with me in a briefcase when I had to duel Pegasus, but that wasn't the same case...'_ Kaiba sighs. _'If I'm going to be able to do that demonstration, I need whatever it is in that briefcase, as well as be able to figure out _what_ it is and how it works. Would there be some type of instruction manual somewhere?'_

* * *

_"Starting today, you two are Kaibas, got that?" Gozaburo told the two. Seto and his brother nodded, wide-eyed. "Forget everything about your lives up to now - as far as anyone's concerned, you two are my own flesh and blood. You better not tell anyone otherwise!"_

Kaiba comes out of the memory to see Domino High from the window. _'So that's why none of the kids at school knew I was adopted...'_ he thinks. _'That _man_... That Gozaburo... He makes me uneasy... I have a bad feeling about him.'_ Kaiba steps out of the limousine and enters the building. He makes his way through the crowds of noisy kids. Kaiba notices one kid with a small, handheld game. The game beeps as the boy presses buttons.

"Launch missile! Take that!" the kid says as he presses buttons, a smirk on his face.

_"This is a _weapons_ company, Seto! We make missiles; we make combat vehicles! I adopted you to take over after I'm gone! Forget about your childish games and start focusing on the future I'm paving for you!"_

Kaiba unconsciously sneers at the memory while making his way to the classroom. Class starts a few minutes later. The teacher begins by handing out packets to the class. One of the large packets lands noisily on Kaiba's desk.

_Seto looked at the packet in front of him. "_Advanced_ Business for high school students? You've gotta be kidding me! I'm only in fifth grade!"_

_"You little idiot," Gozaburo growled. "You have to learn how to run a company! You think I would leave my business to an incompetent?"_

_"No, father..." Seto replied, giving Gozaboro a mean look before starting to work on the packet. 'This isn't how I thought it would be at all... Was making him adopt us _really_ such a good idea?... What's done is done... _Any_ life must be better than being at the orphanage with no life at all.'_

Kaiba shudders.

"Is there something wrong, Mr. Kaiba?" the teacher asks, raising an eyebrow.

"No. Nothing's wrong," Kaiba says quickly.

_"Seto, you're behind in your studies!" Gozaburo yelled. He held a whip in his hands, ready to use it._

_"But I've been trying so hard!"_

_"_Trying_? Trying isn't enough, Seto!" the man bellowed. _

_"Don't punish me! Please father, I'll try harder! I'll read every word in the textbooks if I have to!"_

"Mr. Kaiba...? Are you sure you're feeling okay...?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine," Kaiba tells the teacher. The man doesn't buy it. He frowns at the pale sixteen-year-old.

"Why don't you see the nurse?"

"No, that's not necessary. I told you - I'm... Well... Maybe," Kaiba says. He walks out of the room with kids staring after him, wondering what's going on. After closing the door, Kaiba leans back, against the white wall of the empty hallway. _'Maybe some time alone will be a good thing,'_ he thinks. He allows himself to slide down the wall to rest on the floor. He pulls his legs toward his stomach. _'When is this going to end...?'_ he wonders.

* * *

Yugi glances toward the door of the classroom. _'I hope Kaiba's okay...'_ he thinks.

_'He'll be fine, Yugi,'_ Yami tells the boy.

_'I hope so,'_ Yugi says and gets back to answering questions in his packet. Yami still looks toward the door.

_'Kaiba must be remembering some rough times in his past... I, myself, can't remember my past, so I know what he's going through. I tried to tell him several days ago, but he wouldn't listen... At the end of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Pegasus told me about an evil essence inside the Millennium Items. That really disturbed me... Could _I_ be that essence? Ever since he lost his memories, Kaiba must have been bombarded with hints about his past. Like me, he must be wondering if he could be that evil person he keeps hearing about. Kaiba isn't that person anymore. He changed after death-T. But he doesn't know that...'_

* * *

During the lunch break, Yugi steps out of the classroom. He notices Kaiba sitting on the floor by the door. "Kaiba...?" he asks, surprised. _'Wasn't he supposed to see the nurse?'_

"What do you want, Yugi?" Kaiba asks coldly.

"I... I was worried about you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kaiba insists.

"Then why are you sitting on the floor?" Yugi questions him. Kaiba doesn't have an answer for him. Yugi looks away as he says, "I know you must have been remembering some things in class... It must be rough... Mokuba once told me some about your two's childhood."

_Kaiba Corp. employees leave their seats and stand behind the fifteen-year-old. "From this day on, Kaiba Corporation is mine..." Kaiba smirked as he said this across the table to Gozaburo. "This is how you've taught me..."_

_Sweat drips from Gozaburo's face. Kaiba can tell that the man didn't plan on teaching his adopted son so well that he could outsmart him and take over the company. "Seto, it looks like I'm the loser of our game... Each gamble has a risk and the gambler must be ready to lose. The person who loses has to comply and accept their fate!" Gozaburo said. He left - letting Kaiba run the company._

_'Heh... I'll always remember the lessons you've taught me. If a person wants something... there's _always_ a way they can get it - legal or illegal.'_

"Make it stop... Please... Make it stop..." Kaiba begs, looking up at Yugi from the floor, his blue eyes wide.

"I can't..." Yugi tells him, wishing there was a way he could. The two teens stare at each other for a minute, then the classroom door begins to crack open.

"Yuge?"

"Oh, uh, Joey," Yugi says, turning his head toward his friend.

"Kaiba...?" Joey asks when seeing Kaiba sitting on the floor by the door.

"Mutt," Kaiba replies while standing. He dusts his school uniform off.

"You're pushin' it, Kaiba..." Joey warns.

"Oh, really, Joey? And what are you going to do about it?" Kaiba asks with a smirk.

"Grr..." Joey growls, beginning to lunge at Kaiba. Yugi holds him back.

"Please, Joey! Kaiba hasn't been feeling well lately!" Yugi begs.

Joey grumbles, but turns to go back into the room. "I should'a shoved you harder than I did, ya jerk..." he says under his breath while reaching for the doorknob.

"_What_?" Kaiba demands, narrowing his eyes. Before Yugi could stop him, he grabs Joey by the neck of his shirt and pushes him against the wall. "It was _you_?" he asks darkly.

"I-I-It was jus' an accident! Really! Lemme go, Kaiba!" Joey says wide-eyed.

"You were the one who has caused me all of this trouble..." Kaiba says calmly, although his narrowed, blue eyes are ablaze.

"Kaiba, no! It really was an accident!" Yugi pleads. "Do you really want to be this person? You can choose, Kaiba!"

The smirk on Kaiba's face fades. He looks at Joey, whose dark brown eyes are wide in fear and whose hands are struggling to release Kaiba's fist from the front of his shirt. Joey looks like himself - the boy under Gozaburo's harsh training. Kaiba moves his arm to the side and lets go, tossing Joey into the middle of the hallway. Joey lands on his butt and begins to pick himself up.

"Don't mess with me," Kaiba tells the blond and enters the classroom, leaving Joey to stare daggers at the door.

* * *

_'Is Yugi right? Can I choose who I want to be? Can I leave the past behind me? How...?'_ Kaiba wonders. The teacher's giving a lecture, but Kaiba isn't hearing a word.

_"You're fired. Clean out your desk."_

_"What? But Mr. Kaiba, _why_?"_

_"Because the company doesn't _need_ you anymore," Kaiba told the man coldly._

_"But I'm vital to the company! I'm the best weapons designer out there!" the man begged and grabbed Kaiba's tie as he pleaded his case._

_"This company isn't going to produce _weapons_, anymore! Is that clear?" Kaiba demanded. When the man had let go, Kaiba fixed the blue tie and adjusted his short white jacket. The ex-employee sadly began to pack his things. 'Finally, with Gozaburo out of the way, I can make Kaiba Corp. into a gaming company... I'll destroy everything of Gozaburo's and re-build the company from the ground up,' Kaiba thought._

Kaiba widens his eyes. _'That was the suit I wore to Kaiba Corp. before... Mokuba said I wore it a year ago, so the memory must have been from that time...'_ Kaiba thinks.


	25. Something You Can’t Touch

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Something You Can't Touch**

_"And the world champion remains Seto Kaiba!"_

_"Kaiba! Kaiba! Kaiba!" the crowd cheered. Kaiba accepted the first place trophy and held up his Duel Monsters deck in triumph._

Kaiba ignores the memory and walks toward the door of the school, knowing he only has so much time before that product demonstration.

"Where are you going? I thought we were going to get together after school today," Yugi says between breaths as he tries to catch up.

"Can't," Kaiba says without stopping.

"Why not?"

Kaiba frowns as he stops to explain. "Yugi... I need to do a product demonstration for Kaiba Corp. in a couple hours. The problem is... I don't know what I'm doing a demonstration _for_... I need this time to figure it out." Kaiba suddenly thinks of something. "Wait... You remember that briefcase you gave me at school the first day I came back?" Yugi nods, a confused look on his face. "Do you know what's in it?"

"Not really... Why?" Yugi asks.

"I think that whatever's in it is what the demonstration is for," Kaiba says. "One more thing... Are you good at riddles, Yugi?" Yugi shrugs, looking even more confused. "Answer me this: what is something you can feel but not touch?" When an answer doesn't come, Kaiba begins walking away.

_'Something you can feel but not touch...? Why does that sound so much like my 'Something you can show but not see' riddle?'_ Yugi wonders as he watches Kaiba walk away. _'Of course, the answer to mine is 'friendship'!' _Yugi thinks happily. _'But I don't know what the answer to _Kaiba's_ riddle is...'_

* * *

_'What in the world is Pegasus up to?' Kaiba thought with a frown while he sat on the front row in New York's duel stadium. He watched as Pegasus talked to a crowd of children near the table in the middle of the stadium, teaching them how to play Duel Monsters. 'How long is this going to take? It should be interesting to watch Pegasus duel, but I have other things I could be doing... Hmm... Keith doesn't stand a chance against the inventor of the card game... He's just a prize hunter. Sure, he's won all the big prizes here in America, but Pegasus is the _creator_ of the game. He knows all the secrets, every strategy...'_

_"Ladies and gentlemen! The creator of Duel Monsters and CEO of Industrial Illusions, _Maximillion Pegasus_! ...Against Keith Howard, aka _Bandit Keith_!"_

_'Wait... Why is Pegasus just sitting there?' Kaiba thought._

_"Hey! What are you doing? The game's started already!" Bandit Keith said angrily._

_"Hey, Tom, come here!" Pegasus called to a boy._

_'Wha...? What's going on? He wrote that kid some type of instructions?' Kaiba thought, amazed._

_"Ahh... Hello, Kaiba-Boy!" Pegasus said, sitting down beside Kaiba and crossing his legs._

_"Pegasus?" Kaiba said in surprise._

_"Oh, by the way... I took a look at the proposal! Duel arenas... What a great idea! I would _love_ for my company and Kaiba Corp. to develop it together! Let's make it a reality!"_

_"Sure..." Kaiba replied. He could only stare at Pegasus in bewilderment as the man sat there watching the duel._

_"Agggh!"_

_"Wow! Tom wins!" Pegasus exclaimed with a smile. Kaiba gasps. Pegasus uncrosses his legs and stands. "Well then, Kaiba-Boy, we'll talk more about those arenas in detail, later," he told the teen and walked over to the duel table._

_"Tom is the winner!" Pegasus said and held up Tom's hand in triumph._

_'No way! Pegasus... How did he _do_ that?' Kaiba wondered._

Kaiba comes out of the memory just as the limo stops at the mansion. When stepping inside, he sees a maid dusting the front room. "Miss..." he calls to her.

She stops dusting and looks at Kaiba. "Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

"Have you seen the silver briefcase that used to be in that chair?" Kaiba asks and points toward the chair he's talking about.

"Yes," she answers. Kaiba lets out a sigh of relief. "I believe I asked Mr. Mokuba about it Saturday night and he said he would take care of it."

"Where's Mokuba now?"

"I believe he's in his room, Mr. Kaiba," she answers. Kaiba hurries up the stairs and opens his brother's bedroom door.

"Mokuba, you had the briefcase last," Kaiba tells his brother.

"Huh?" Mokuba asks.

"The last time I remember having it is Friday night. The maid told me that you said you would take care of it - and that was Saturday."

Mokuba's eyes widen. "Oh... I remember that, now..."

"Where did you put it?" Kaiba asks urgently.

"I... I don't remember..." Mokuba says. "I'm sorry, Seto... I just don't remember..." the younger brother says, being on the verge of tears.

"Well... Tell me what you _do_ remember."

"I was going to put it in your room, but... when I got close to the door, I saw you leaning against the wall, and then you went into your room... and I heard something break..." Mokuba tells his brother while looking away.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba... I didn't think anyone else was there..."

"That's over now... It's okay..." Mokuba tells his brother.

"So... What did you do with the briefcase after that?" Kaiba asks softly.

"I just can't remember... I guess I left it in the hallway... Maybe someone found it and put it somewhere else."

The brothers split up to search the mansion. After about an hour, Kaiba tries looking in the study. He finds the briefcase on the floor next to the desk. _'Of course... Why didn't I try looking in this room first? If the briefcase is work-related, it only makes sense that someone would put it here. Now that I think of it, I probably saw it here two days ago when Mokuba and I were in this room, but I just didn't think about it.' _Before going out the door, Kaiba glances at the titles on the bookshelf. _'Looks like Kaiba likes philosophy,'_ he thinks, noticing that several of the books deal with that subject. He pulls out a random book to look at it, titled _Also Sprach Zarathustra_. Flipping close to the middle of the book, he begins to read a little of it.

_"Maybe I can even get my grandpa to show us this super-rare card he's got."_

_Kaiba looks up from the book, thinking 'Rare card? Could they have found the card that I've been searching for?'_

He clutches his head, not liking the strange experience. It was as if Kaiba took over his head for a second, similar to what happened once or twice before while remembering something recent. After getting over the incident, he puts the book back on the shelf and leaves the room. Mokuba comes out of another room and notices his brother.

"You found the briefcase!" Mokuba says happily.

"Yep. Just did," Kaiba replies. He bends down and opens the briefcase, then turns it around for Mokuba to see what's inside. "Now... any idea what it is?"

"I can't tell... It's not identifiable, yet. If this is what the demonstration is for, then it looks as though you were already behind schedule, or else you would have made it look more appealing..." Mokuba says while staring at the raw materials. "I _do_ recall you spending a lot of time in that workroom of yours during the past several weeks before you lost your memory. I never really asked you what you were working on..."

"Wait... The workroom?" Kaiba asks. He remembers how familiar the room felt when he found it a week ago. Then the next morning...

_"It's your private studio. You would come in here when experimenting with machinery. Inventing and fine-tuning, mostly," Mokuba told him._

_'I think there's something about the room Mokuba didn't mention... Or maybe doesn't know about...' Kaiba thought. 'But it could just be my imagination.'_

"I think the answer to what this is lies in that room..." Kaiba tells his brother.

The brothers hurry to the workroom, but quickly discover that it's hard to find something when a person doesn't know what they're looking for.

Kaiba notices a computer close to the drawer he was looking in. "Could there be something about it on the computer?" Kaiba asks.

"Yeah! That's a great idea, Seto! Maybe there are even some notes about what you were going to say!"

Kaiba shook the mouse to make the computer wake up. _'This looks like an older model... Maybe Kaiba uses this one while working on his inventions, and the laptop when doing more important things... But, it looks like his hobbies and his work go hand in hand a lot... If he _does_ have notes about the demonstration on this computer, then I wonder if he could also have a copy of them on the laptop,' _Kaiba thinks as he waits for the computer to come out of standby. A screen comes up that reads, "to begin, click your user name". To the right of that, there's the name "Seto Kaiba" and a small picture of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He clicks on the name and a textbox appears with the words, "type your password" above it. Kaiba types several characters and presses the enter button on the keyboard. When the computer finishes loading, he clicks on the start menu and rolls over to "My Recent Documents". _'Looks like Kaiba keeps the software updated. I have to wonder, though, if he's able to get newer operating systems before they officially get on the market...' _Kaiba thinks. The computer shows fifteen recent documents. He hesitates. Which document, if any, would deal with the machine in his briefcase? He then remembers the dream he had this morning.

_'Mheh, heh... Something you can feel but not touch,' Kaiba thought with a smirk as he took one more glance around the room, then turned off the light and closed the door. 'I'm almost ready for Monday...'_

_'If that was a real memory... Then Kaiba definitely worked on this machine in here. I got a good look at the room during the dream and it was this one. But what could that riddle mean? I can feel _memories_ but not touch them... Feel the pain, the emotion... But that doesn't have anything to do with Kaiba Corp. So... Maybe I should think of it this way: what else can't I touch?'_ Kaiba's mind goes back to the duel he had with Pegasus. _'I can't touch a hologram... Could that be the answer?'_

**

* * *

**

**Hmm... Well, looks like there's some people who know about Gozaburo. I think the dubbed anime says Gozaburo ran away, so I was trying to keep it Y7.**

**I wonder if that whole "feel but not touch" thing makes sense... I had trouble explaining it in the next chapter. By the way, with the line "**_I have to wonder, though, if he's able to get newer operating systems before they officially get on the market..._**" I meant that, well, I don't have a older computer, I have XP, and this story takes place in 1996 or 1997 or so. So, I went by my own computer and added that line in.**

**One more note is that the "**_Also Sprach Zarathustra_**" book scene was originally in a very early chapter, as his first memory. But I took it out, because I thought it would be more meaningful to have his first memory because of Pegasus. So, if it sounds a little odd (or redundant, since I thought of a similar scene later on), then it could be because it wasn't meant to be here.**


	26. Surprise, Surprise

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprise, Surprise**

_'I can't touch holograms, like the ones the Duel Disks make, but I remember how realistic the monsters were when I dueled Pegasus...' _Kaiba thinks.

_Pegasus's Minor Goblin Official card activated and a goblin jumped out to attack Kaiba. Kaiba raised his hand to protect himself from the attack, but the goblin's sword went straight through his hand and toward his face. He closed his eyes as a last defense. Nothing happened. When he opened his eyes, he saw Pegasus shuffling his sub cards. Kaiba's heartbeat began to return to normal and he looked at his deck holder to see that he had five hundred and seventy-five life points left._

_'The monsters were so realistic. They just felt so real... It felt as though those monsters were really dueling with each other. That must be the answer to the riddle. You can feel holograms - figuratively speaking - but you can't touch them.'_ Kaiba looks at the names of the recent documents on the computer, and finds one titled, "DuelDisk2.". He clicks on it and the document opens to show several notes about the machine in the briefcase and what Kaiba wanted to demonstrate to his employees.

* * *

Kaiba and his brother are in the limo, headed for Kaiba Corp.

_'I thought I should come with Seto like I did last time... I'm not sure what I can do if something goes wrong, but maybe by eavesdropping, things will be easier to fix later on. Maybe I could tell them he has a headache, and that's why he isn't making any sense...'_ Mokuba shakes his head to rid himself of the thought. _'Nothing's going to go wrong! We found out what he's supposed to do today, and everything will be just fine!'_ he tries to convince himself.

Kaiba had enough time to change out of the school uniform, so he put on the dark indigo-blue jacket and matching black shirt and pants he wore when dueling Pegasus. He looks at the printouts he's holding. _'It's a good thing I thought about the laptop possibly having a copy of the document... Not only did it have a copy of that, but it also had a document filled with detailed diagrams of what the finished product will look like. I figured the diagrams were probably meant to be handed out to people attending the meeting. I wasn't sure how many people are supposed to be at the meeting, so I printed out several copies, as well as one copy of the notes Kaiba had for himself.'_ Kaiba looks out the window of the limo and begins to think about the last memory he had.

_"Maybe I can even get my grandpa to show us this super-rare card he's got."_

_Kaiba looked up from the book, thinking 'Rare card? Could they have found the card that I've been searching for?'_

_'Can the card in the memory be one of the Blue-Eyes?'_ he wonders while staring out the window at the buildings of Domino. Straight ahead, Kaiba Corp. comes into view - being one of the tallest buildings in the city. He also notices a somehow-familiar game shop, which flies by his window on the right side of the limo.

_Kaiba opens the door to the small game shop where he followed Yugi and his friends. The bell above the door rings._

_"Hello, can I help you?" the man behind the counter asks. Yugi and the others turn to see who's there._

_"If you can't, it certainly wouldn't surprise me," Kaiba says. 'I shouldn't have even come... It can't be the card I want... The odds are definitely against it.'_

_"Seto Kaiba...?" Yugi asks, amazed._

_"Kaiba?" Joey repeats._

_"Doesn't he have a big fancy company to run? What's he doing down here?" Tristan asks his friends._

_"Not that it's any of your business, but _I_ came to see the card," Kaiba tells them._

_"Hey, are you inta Duel Monsters, too? This is perfect! Maybe we could all duel together sometime," Joey says with a smile._

_"_Me_? Duel _you_? I would have more of a challenge playing solitaire," Kaiba tells the blond. 'Who _are _these losers, anyhow? If they were anywhere _near_ my league, I would have seen them in tournaments.'_

_"What...?" Joey asks, startled._

_"_I_ am the number one ranked duelist in the country, and the favorite to win this year's Duel Monsters championship. Heh. You wouldn't last two minutes in a duel against me."_

_"Ooo, I'm shakin'. Maybe you'd like to settle this with fists instead of cards!"_

_"Whoa! Take it easy, Joey!" Yugi tells his friend while holding him back._

_"But Yugi... Kaiba's askin' for it..."_

_'What an idiot. I was being _nice_. Whatever. I'm here for a reason,' Kaiba thinks. "Now, does this shop have any worthwhile cards or not?" Kaiba gasps when noticing a Blue-Eyes card lying on the counter. He rushes over to the front of the store to see. "Can it be? The Blue-Eyes white dragon in a dump like this?" he asks aloud. 'It is! The card I've been searching for! The fourth Blue-Eyes... The only one I haven't found yet...'_

"Seto...? Seto, we're here..." Mokuba tells his brother.

"Shut up. Can't you see I'm thinking?" Kaiba asks. When seeing the surprised look on Mokuba's face, Kaiba feels bad about what he said. He looks away while saying, "I... I'm sorry, Mokuba. Let's go into the building."

Mokuba stays outside the door of the boardroom, same as he did last Thursday. _'Seto was acting like he did right before Death-T... What does that mean...? Is he going to remember everything? I hope he remembers past Death-T... That was an awful time... Well, he remembered his newest password for the computer today, so _that's_ a good sign. Heh. Big Brother has always been careful with his documents. I have my own password for the laptop... _I'm_ not even allowed on Seto's personal account,'_ Mokuba thinks.

When stepping inside the boardroom, Kaiba notices that all the chairs but two are filled, and both empty ones are end chairs. "Sorry if I kept you waiting, gentlemen," Kaiba tells them. He sits in the same chair he sat at last time and puts the briefcase on the table.

"Mr. Kaiba, I thought you said your brother was to attend this meeting," one person says. Kaiba freezes, not sure what he could say.

Outside the room, Mokuba widens his eyes. _'I was supposed to be at the meeting? Why didn't Big Brother say something about it before? I didn't even know what he was working on...'_ Mokuba thinks. He walks into the room saying, "Oh, I see everyone's here, already... I guess it was a bad time for a bathroom break," Mokuba says embarrassedly. He sits down in the other end chair, across from Kaiba.

Kaiba lets out a relieved sigh and opens the briefcase. "_This_ is version two of the duel disk battling system," he tells the men.

"_This_ is all you have to show of what you and this company have been working so hard on for the past year?" one man asks.

"Well... It may look a little rough _now_, but in a few more weeks, it'll-" Kaiba begins.

"We don't _have_ a few more weeks! This product is supposed to be finished, tested thoroughly, and distributed by then!" someone interrupts.

"Well, I..." Kaiba says, looking around the room. His gaze is met by frowns. "It'll be ready. I assure you," Kaiba tells them confidently.

"So, are you going to show us how far along it is, or just sit there?" another person asks.

"Need I remind you that I can fire whoever I please, whenever I please?" No one says a word. "Here are some diagrams of what the finished product will look like," Kaiba tells them and passes some papers down the table. He glances at his notes while they're looking over the diagrams. He then stands and carefully takes the machine out of the briefcase. Even though the plastic cover isn't on it yet, the machine should still be able to slide onto a person's arm. Kaiba moves back against the wall of the room, puts the machine in place and activates it. Two small devices fly out from the disk and land on the floor in front of him, as well as two wings made of large microchips moving around to connect together - forming a makeshift game mat. "As you see, two wings come out when it's activated. This one has two spaces for monster cards, while the other one has three. Below the spaces are slots for magic and trap cards. ...The spaces are hard to identify right now, but you can see them in the diagrams I passed out. Fi... Field magic cards," Kaiba says, hesitating since he hasn't heard of that type of card, "can be played by flipping out an extra space on the end of one of the wings, like..." Kaiba tries making the space come out on one wing, and then tries it on the other when the first doesn't work. He frowns when he can't figure out how to make it come out. "Well... That can be fixed. Anyway, holograms are generated from these two... thingies on the floor."

" 'Thingies'?" one of them asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh... Y-yeah..." Kaiba says nervously. The nervousness leaves him as he begins getting upset with these people. He looks directly at the man as he says, "Yes. - If I decide to call those devices 'thingies', then that's my choice. _I'm_ the one who designed them and built the prototype." The man looks away from Kaiba and scoots down in his seat.

_'Seto's doing a good job of covering up his mistakes...'_ Mokuba thinks proudly. _'If it were _me_ doing the presentation, I probably wouldn't be doing as good a job.'_

"Before I was interrupted, I was saying that these 'thingies' get information from the Duel Disk in order to produce holograms. The devices on the floor _also_ set up the dimensions within which the holograms are to be projected. Because of the microchips located inside each Duel Monster card, I can place one of the cards on a space, and a hologram of it will form almost instantaneously," he says. He hastily walks back to his seat to get a card from the open briefcase lying on the table. _'Guess I should have put a few cards in my pocket beforehand...'_ he thinks.

"Okay," he says as he steps back and puts the monster card in attack position on one of the spaces. ...Nothing happens. Kaiba tries flipping the card over to see if that will work. Again, nothing. "Um... This _should_ be working..." he tells the people at the table and smiles slightly to try to make it look as though it's a joke. He also tries putting the card in defense mode without luck. Kaiba then tries shaking the duel disk prototype. Mokuba slaps his forehead, thinking about how stupid his brother's acting.

_'Well... At least the diagrams of the finished product look pretty impressive... If Seto can figure out how to get the machine to work - and doesn't tear it up from shaking it - then it will be a big improvement over the original Duel Disks,'_ Mokuba thinks. _'He _better_ not screw this up... This company needs the product to get back on top, since the stocks are still a little low from... what happened during the six months immediately after Death-T...'_

**

* * *

**

**I hope it wasn't too confusing here. See, Kaiba has two different versions of the duel disk. There's the Duelist Kingdom version and the Battle City version. If no one's figured it out yet, this fanfic takes place between those two seasons. The Pegasus part might have been a little confusing, too... Kaiba took a briefcase, but not _that_ briefcase. So it's totally different.**


	27. How it Ends

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: How It Ends**

_'Why isn't this Duel Disk working?'_ Kaiba wonders as he shakes the arm the Duel Disk is on. He stops shaking the machine and looks at the bottom of it, where there are a lot of different wires and things. There seems to be one wire that isn't connected to anything. "Okay, I think I found the problem..." Kaiba says aloud as he reconnects the loose wire. _'Unless it just now came undone from shaking the disk too much...'_ he adds in his thoughts. "Let's try this again," he says and puts the Duel Monster card back on the space. Energy can be seen running through the green microchip and different wires, and then a realistic looking holographic image appears before him. The men at the table have a look of amazement when the hologram appears, since they were beginning to believe the machine didn't work. "Once the machine is finished, the covering will prevent wires from coming loose like that," Kaiba mentions. "As you can see, the Duel Disk wirelessly communicates information from the played card to the two devices on the floor. Then those devices create the hologram. When two Duel Disks are used together in a duel, they can communicate with each other. This small screen shows how many life points a player has remaining," Kaiba says and points toward a part of the machine. "So... What do you think of the disk?" Kaiba asks as he shuts it off.

The men talk with one another for a few minutes. Kaiba looks toward his brother, who has a worried look on his face.

"The demonstration was very... interesting," someone tells Kaiba. "The diagrams in the handout look very promising, and the quality of the hologram - when it works - is very good. The disk also seems exceptionally sturdy, since it still worked after receiving quite a beating. However... as for how much time it's taking to perfect... You have the last say in these matters, of course, but I would suggest moving on to new projects if the machine can't be completed within about two days. As the company's lead financial advisor, I feel the need to remind you that we need to get as many products on the market as possible at this time."

"Two days... It can be completed in that amount of time," Kaiba tells him.

"Are you sure, Mr. Kaiba...? Tomorrow's Saturday. - Most of the people in that department have the weekend off," one person speaks up.

"I'll complete it _myself_," Kaiba tells the men. With that, the meeting is adjourned. On the way home, Kaiba notices a building being built close to Mr. Muto's game shop. The sign at the top of the building reads, "The Black Crown Game Shop". _'Looks like Yugi's grandfather is going to get some competition...'_ he thinks.

_'If _this_ duel, using a duel arena, almost gave the old man a heart attack, then he should see the realistic holo-generators I'm starting... The Duel Disks will be much more realistic, with solid-vision holograms,' Kaiba thinks. He looks at the card in his hands. 'Finally... I have the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The man should have agreed to sell it to me or trade for it, but he was an idiot... ' He holds up the card he won in the duel so that Yugi and his grandfather can see, then rips it in half. "Now that card will never be used against me," he says. 'Too bad you can only have three of the same card in a deck, but at least I get to see the horrified looks on their faces...'_

_"Grandpa!" Yugi says, rushing over to Mr. Muto. "Grandpa, are you all right?"_

_"Y... Yugi... I'm sorry I lost... Kaiba's a terrible young man... He'll do anything to win a game... I built this deck; I put my soul into these cards... Take my cards and teach Kaiba respect for the heart of the cards, Yugi!"_

_'What a stupid old man... I _already defeated _his deck once, and now he doesn't even have a Blue-Eyes anymore!' Kaiba thinks._

_The duel begins at the top floor of Kaiba Land, at an arena in the center of the room. 'Is this the same Yugi I've seen in the past? He's more confident than before, as though he's a whole different person! This other Yugi... He's interesting,' Kaiba thinks._

_"Draw your last pathetic card so I can end this, Yugi," Kaiba says with a smirk at the end of the duel._

_"My Grandpa's deck _has_ no pathetic cards, Kaiba," Yami says, also smirking. "But it _does_ contain... The unstoppable Exodia!"_

_"Exodia! It's not possible!" Kaiba yells. His life points drop to zero. 'How could this nobody defeat me?'_

Kaiba comes out of the memory to see Mokuba sitting beside him. "Seto... _can_ you finish the second version of the Duel Disk in two days...?" Mokuba asks, too preoccupied to notice Kaiba's shocked expression about the memory.

"Well... I think there's enough notes about the disks. I might have to take it apart to see how everything's put together, though," Kaiba answers his brother. "There's something I would like to ask _you_, too... What happened after Yugi defeated me in a duel using Exodia? What's the rest of the story?"

"I'll tell you when we get home," Mokuba tells him, realizing Kaiba must have just remembered the duel. After getting back to the mansion, the brothers go to a room upstairs to talk. "After that duel, you... left to figure things out. It was a hard six months... Kaiba Corp. stocks plummeted, you lost a lot of weight... Pegasus took the opportunity to try buying out the company, teaming up with the company's head executives, called the Big Five. Pegasus kidnapped me, since I had the key to a safe that held some important papers. The Big Five told Pegasus they'd let him have the company if he could defeat Yugi - what you couldn't do. That's the main reason Pegasus held the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Pegasus hired a guy to impersonate you and duel Yugi, but he didn't expect the _real _you to show up..."

_"Stop Defense! Now all your monsters switch to attack mode!"_

_"I'll play Feral Imp," Yami says, knowing this will be his last turn of the duel. - He had run out of moves._

_"Blue-Eyes, attack!"_

_'Yugi!...' Kaiba calls, even though he's halfway across the world. The Blue-Eyes vanishes from the field. 'What happened...?' he wonders._

"I _knew_ it was you. Yugi taught you about the heart of the cards during that duel with him, and your Blue-Eyes wasn't going to attack Yugi during _this_ duel if you didn't want it to. Kemo thought it was some glitch with the arena, but anything made by you wouldn't break so easily!"

"Kemo... Isn't he your bodyguard?" Kaiba asks, recalling the name.

"He _was_... A lot of the people who worked for us switched sides with Pegasus. The maid was pretty much the only person I thought I could trust... You came to Duelist Kingdom to try to save me and the company, after that."

Kaiba suddenly remembers heading to the island in a helicopter, arriving at night and dueling Joey after the mutt practically begged for a match, going to Pegasus's castle, and holding Croquet hostage until he could see Pegasus. He also remembers Pegasus showing him footage of Mokuba's cell and telling him the only way to save Mokuba is to duel him - but first he has to defeat Yugi. Kaiba remembers Dueling Yugi in Expert Mode on a wing of the castle. And he remembers Pegasus agreeing to use the Duel Disks, but only if a brainwashed Mokuba duels in Pegasus's place. He had refused to duel his brother - he could barely stand _seeing_ him in that condition, let alone _duel_ him. He remembers losing to Pegasus, and how, to his dismay, Yugi had won _for_ him. He remembers how he fired everyone who had turned against him.

"Yugi said you tried dueling Pegasus in order to save me, but-"

"You don't have to tell me anymore, Mokuba," Kaiba says with a slight smile.

"But I wanted to tell you about..."

"You don't have to," Kaiba repeats. Mokuba notices the smile on Kaiba's face and the glimmer in his eyes, and realizes what his brother means.

"Welcome back, Big Brother..." Mokuba says as he throws his arms around Kaiba. The brothers hug for a few minutes before pulling away from one another.

"I'm glad it's all over, but I still have something I need to do..." Kaiba tells his brother. He leaves the room and goes downstairs while thinking about who the traitor could be.

_"I'm not sure if Pegasus found out about you having amnesia by the Millennium Eye or not... I just have a feeling that there was more to it than that..."_

Remembering what Yugi had told him at school yesterday, Kaiba's pretty sure there's one more of Pegasus's spies still working for him. Who could it be, though? Thinking back to the past twelve days, he's done so many things unlike himself, it could be almost anyone he's come in contact with. On second thought, most people probably wouldn't assume he had amnesia when acting a little odd - losing his mind, on the other hand, is another story. The thing is, when Pegasus first called Kaiba, he was very specific.

_"Good answer, for an amnesiac," Pegasus replied._

Because of that, either Kaiba must have given someone a big clue - which he was _trying_ to be careful not to do - or he's been around someone often enough for them to put all the pieces together. If he assumed Yugi and his friends didn't blab... (How could he have been so nice to them - even if he didn't remember he doesn't trust them?) The person who next comes to mind is that maid who he's seen almost everyday, it seems. Someone working in the mansion, like her, could be around him enough to figure it out. But Mokuba trusted her so much during Duelist Kingdom that it's hard to believe it could be her, even when remembering that a person can't trust anyone - not even _themselves_. This is a perfect example of that. He couldn't even trust _himself_ to keep his memory loss a secret. Not to mention how he couldn't trust himself to take care of Mokuba before Death-T. He didn't treat his brother - or anyone else, for that matter - very kindly at _all _during that time.

Kaiba comes to a conclusion about who it must be by the time he gets to the ground floor. He fires the person, along with having them send a message to Pegasus that he remembers everything.

Next, Kaiba goes to the study to see if he can catch up on his work and fix anything Mokuba or _himself_ had messed up. After typing for awhile, the phone rings. He picks it up and answers.

"Mr. Kaiba, Yugi Muto is at the front gate. Should we let him in?"

Kaiba considers it for a minute before saying, "Yes. Show him in and have him wait for me in the front room." Kaiba hangs up the phone and walks back downstairs to see Yugi sitting in a chair waiting for him. Yugi looks up when noticing Kaiba.

"I thought I should come over, since we didn't get a chance to talk after school. See, I think there might be someone in the mansion who could be spying on you for Pegasus..." Yugi says.

"I already fired the traitor. It was just common sense... When I realized how unlike myself I've been during the past several days..."

"So you've got your memories back..." Yugi observes.

"Yeah..." Kaiba says and pauses for a minute. "Yugi... The past two weeks never happened, got it?" Yugi nods with a knowing smile. "Tell Jo-" Kaiba begins but catches himself, "_Wheeler_ and the others that it was temporary insanity on my part, and nothing more."

**

* * *

**

**Epilogue**

Kaiba got himself a new limo driver after firing the old one. His chauffeur was around him even more than the maid, driving him back and forth to school, the hospital, and Kaiba Corp. He might not have been able to hear him and Mokuba talking, but he might have saw his expression when seeing the mansion for the first time, as well as other things. The man also knew about every time he went to the hospital.

Kaiba stayed up all night working on finalizing the Duel Disk and got it done on time. Not too long afterward, a woman by the name of Ishizu told him about three rare Duel Monster cards and talked him into throwing a tournament in order to find two of them. It was good timing, since it would push sales for Duel Disks - having people using them in a tournament. The thing is, it's actually cheaper to make the Duel Disks than the Duel Arenas. They're also more portable - people can duel _anywhere_ with the disks.

There _were_ a few problems during his Battle City tournament, though. Ishizu and Yugi kept trying to tell him that he was a priest three thousand years ago, around 1,000 BC. Of course... that would have been impossible. He kept telling them that he knew who he was - that he was Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation. There was no way he could stand not knowing who he was for the second time. He just figured out who he was and he never wanted to have that lost and confused feeling _ever_ again.

Kaiba also became obsessed with dueling Yugi again, since he found out that he could have won fairly at Duelist Kingdom if he had remembered the Negate card in his hand. He gave up too soon during that duel and wanted to win a duel against Yugi for real. Yugi ended up winning against him during the finals of the tournament, but it was still a very close match.

After having to relive all the memories about his stepfather, Gozaburo Kaiba, the pain was fresh on his mind and he was haunted by the man ever since he remembered him. Because of that, he decided to try burying the past at the end of the tournament, along with an old artificial island for weapon manufacturing that Gozaburo had made while still alive.

Kaiba also decided to fulfill his dream of building Kaiba Lands all over the globe and flew to America with his brother after the tournament ended. He had only built one Kaiba Land so far, so he had a lot of work ahead of him. He also thought it would be a good opportunity to spend time with Mokuba and talk to him about things. Mokuba had always wanted the sweet innocent brother he used to know before Gozaburo had adopted them, but then when Kaiba had lost his memories and acted more like the kid he used to be, Mokuba couldn't stand Kaiba not remembering him or their life. Then, after Kaiba _did_ get his memories back, Mokuba wished Kaiba would act more like he did when he had amnesia. Kaiba thought he'd try being everything Mokuba's been wanting when they're in America, but he still wanted to have a talk with him about how he isn't sure if he could be that innocent kid again and still remember everything that had happened during his life.

**

* * *

**

**Reflection about writing the story:**

Hmm... Looks like the story's over, now. It's been a good two years, and I actually finished a story. First one on this site, and first I finish. Well... The ending seems too rushed, though. I was initially projecting 25 chapters while writing the last part of the story, and I wanted to get 27, since that's my lucky number. Then I ended up with too much to write at the end, so there should probably have been 28 or 29 chapters, really... But I think I found a way to fit everything into the last chapter and still make it sound believable.

I think I got better after writing the first several chapters. It was taking me a month to do a chapter at first - except for the prologue, which only took about half an hour - and then this last summer, May 2006, I was trying to come up with the duel between Kaiba and Pegasus, as well as try to get some inspiration for chapter nine and up. I didn't write much for awhile, but then I wrote chapters 9 to 19 during what was left of the summer - sometimes writing a chapter in only a day's time, even. I saved up a lot of those chapters, and I was right in doing so, since I didn't get anything done during the fall semester at school - even with a Creative Writing class... It was the first time that school took up so much of my time. When I got out December 16, 2006, I thought it was a good opportunity to write as much as I could before starting back on January 16, 2007. I did start making plans before the semester was officially over, though. I made some summaries of what I would like to say in the last chapters, and I again got some chapters done in only a day's time.

Figuring out the moves for the duel helped me with plot stuff. When I first started this story, I didn't know much about what was going to happen next. I wanted Kaiba to have dreams and bad memories, and there were one or two scenes that had popped into my head, but I was really writing this story blindly. I figured it was the best thing to do, since I wanted to finish this and I would become bored with past stories I'd started when figuring out how it was going to end. Every chapter is three pages and 10-14 lines in length and most of the chapters are of a whole day or a half of a day. That's because I had to figure out what to say and I would start with "Kaiba wakes up", think of what he would do next, and eventually end with "Kaiba goes to bed" unless I come up with a lot for him to do during the day. Now... When I was doing the duel, I thought I needed to write down their moves on paper before starting the chapters. I've tried writing duels before, and they wouldn't work out because I wouldn't know enough cards or other things. This time is the first time I got a duel that made sense. After coming up with the moves, I then started writing the chapter centered around those moves. That allowed me to write the chapters quickly, since I basically knew where it was going. What I'm trying to say is, I wanted to have that feeling of everything fitting together, as well as being able to write that quickly, again. So I thought I'd try it for the end of the fanfic. It was good that I did that, since I needed to tie up loose ends, and I went through the story to try to find things I needed to answer or elaborate on. I didn't do everything I was thinking about, since I had to fit in so much in chapter 27, but I did a lot. I'll try to plan out stories in this way again.

I think I also improved my writing skills in other ways while doing this story. For one, I used to switch back and forth between present tense and past tense (it was a way to make "he said" and "she said" sound more varied), but when I first started thinking about doing this story, I thought I should pick one and stick with it. I started the story around the beginning of February, 2005, by the way.

I also worded some things in the first few chapters kind'a bad, since I couldn't figure out how to word them any better. Now, I see how I can word things a lot better. I've fixed little things in the first chapters of the story every so often, so you probably won't see any big mistakes. I've also learned how to make things more detailed, partly from Pile of Manga. I found her website quite a while ago, and the pictures on her site looked so much like ones I've done, I thought it was amazing. I've never seen anyone who drew like me and make some of the same mistakes as me, before. I more recently found out that she's on here and has some stories. I was surprised by how detailed her writing was, and I figured that if she could do it, I could do it. So I studied a few lines of one of her fanfics and I figured out a way to do it. I still haven't figured out how to incorporate detail into everything I write, but if I focus on it, I can do it. I'm wanting to add more detail to this story while revising it some. I want to add some extra scenes into the story - some potential things I could have had in the first chapters, which I didn't notice until about a year after I started writing the story.

Even though I think I've improved a lot, it looks like the story's done better at the beginning... Heh. I still wonder where all the reviewers have gone and why...

Hmm... There's a few scenes I started to put into some chapters, but then had cut them out, thinking of something better to put. I tried putting those deleted/changed scenes back into the story, and hopefully they fit in pretty good where I added them. As an example, the part about seeing a book on a bookshelf and having a bad memory about Mr. Muto's Blue-Eyes was originally the first memory Kaiba had. But I took it out, since I thought it was better for his first memory to be when Pegasus called him. That memory about the book was originally in chapter six. I had already replaced the experience with another, similar one, in a later chapter, but I liked that first one. After adding it, I even came up with more memories that involve it, as you see. So... I guess this is goodbye, everyone. Parting truly is such sweet sorrow.

There's a few people who I'd like to thank and give some credit to.

**Helped me with the story in some way:**

Ninque (on this site) - the inspiration (even though she ended up revising the story before posting the ending, then not posting the revision! Whenever "To Truly See" comes back to this site, I'll be happy to read it)

Mattie B. - nurse I got the hospital info from

LadyPhoenix99 (on this site) - writer and friend who helped a lot

My dad - proofread the story and pointed out grammatical errors

Decree (on this site) - friend who helped a lot

Angel N.

Cody, from yu-jyo - the guy that knows everything about Yu-Gi-Oh!

Caorann fridh Bronach (on this site)

Clarity2199 (on this site) - her "Amnesia" story initially sounds a lot like mine, although it was impossible for me to have copied from her... Just interesting that we had a lot of the same ideas.

Silver Dragon Golden Dragon (on this site)

Kittyuehana - gave review on live journal

Kari Izumi - told me about live journal

Pile of Manga (on this site) - her writing is so detailed and I'm trying to learn from her

**Special thanks to these reviewers:**

Wise Man Domingo

Tai Greywing

Shadow over Egypt

Caorann fridh Bronach

LadyPhoenix99

Sir Mocha

t-me

Silverfox

KitsuneChan8888888

nanashi09

Ori

chibineko ()

CCS132

STFU () - for speaking their mind

Dispassion

AvidReaderAlso

Joou Himeko Dah

NeptuneIce - for making me feel better on January 15, 2007.

Kate Ryou

silverfoxninja

Also thanks to everyone else who has reviewed, especially those who have reviewed toward the end...

(Finished Saturday, January 13th, 2007)


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